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RASHTRAPATI BHAVAN
LIBRARY

Reg. No _
Clas. No.

TliK WAii IX INDIA.

A HISTOEY

OF TilK

SEPOY WAE IN INDIA

1857-1858

JOHN WILLIAM KAYE, F.11.S.

AUTHOIt m

lilJsTOUY OF THE WAU IN AFOUANISTAN

YOL. L

Wntb BOitfon (1880)

LONGMANS, GEEEN, AND CO.

LONDON, NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY
1896

All fight* reaerved

1 SHOULD HAVE DEDICATED

THESE VOLUMES

LOBD CilflfllfG,

lU^ HY. 'aVKT-:

1 KOW INSCRIBE THEM REVERENTIALLY

TO HIS MEMORY.

CONTENTS OF TOL I

BOOK I.— IITTEODUCTOEY.

OHAPTEE I,

THE CONQUEST OF THE PUNJAB AND PEGU.

PA.ax

The Administration of Lord Dalhousie — His I’arewell Minute — ^He-
trospect of the First Sikh War — The Military Occupation of the
Punjab — Tlie Council of Regency — ^The Second Sikh War — The
Annexation of the Punjab — Its Administration under the Law-
rences — The Conquest of Pegu 1

CHAPTER II.

THE “right of IiAPSE.*^ *

The Administration of Lord Dalhousie — ^Adoption — The “ Right of
Lapse” — Sattarah — Nagpore — Jhansi — Xerowlee — ^The Carnatic
— Tanjore — ^TheCase of the Peishwah — DundooPunt, Nana Sahib
— Sumbhulpore ..... . , 69

CHAPTER in.

THE ANNEXATION OF OUDB.

The Annexation of Oude — Early History of the Province — The
Treaty of 1801 — Effects of the Double Government — Creation of
the Kingship — Progress of Misrule — ^Repeated Warnings — ^The
XJnratified Treaty — Colonel Sleeman’s Reports — Lord Dalhousie’s
Minute — ^Views of the Court of Directors — Sir James Qutram
Resident — Annexation proclaimed . . . . . . 11^

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE. IV.

VnOGK&SS OP ENGLISHISM.

Destruction of the Native Aristocracy — ^Eetrospect of Hevenne
Administration — The Settlement of the North-West Provinces —
The Ousting of the Talookhdars — ^Eesumption Operations — The
Inam Commission — Decay of Priestly Power — Social Reforms —
Moral and Material Progress

153

BOOK II.— THE SEPOY ABMT: ITS HISE, PEOQEESS,
AND DECLINE.

CHAPTEE I.

EARLY HISTORY OP THE NATIVE ARMY.

The Sepoy Army of the Company — Its Else and Progress — ThePirst
Mutiny in Bengal — Deteriorating Influences — Degradation of the
Native Officer — The Eeorganisation of 1796 — ^Progress of Innova-
tion — Tiie Mutiny of Vellore — Later Signs of Disaifcctioii —
Causes of the Mutiny . . . . . . . .201

CHAPTEE 11.

DETERIORATING INELHENCES.

Subsidence of Alarm — The Soldier in England and in India — The
Sepoy and his Officer — ^Deteriorating Influences — ^The Drainage of
the Staff — Progress of Centralisation — ^The Eeorganisation of 1824
—The Barrackpore Mutiny— -The Half-Batta Order— Abolition of
' Corporal Punishment . , . . . . , , .258

CHAPTEE IIL

THE SINDH MUTINIES.

The War in Afghanistan— Pernicious Effects of Defeat— The An-
nexation of Scinde — ^Eesults of Extension of Empire — ^Tlie Indus
Allowances — Mutiny of the Thirty-fourth Eegiment — Embarrass-
ments of Government— The March of the Sixty-fourth— Mutiny
at Sliikarpore — ^Disaffection in the Madras Army , , . . , 274

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PUNJAB MUTINIES.

YAGB

The War on the Sutlej — The Patna Conspiracy — Attempt to Corrupt
the Sepoys at Dinapore — The Occupation of the Punjab — ^An-
nexation and its Effects — ^Reduction of the Sepoy’s Pay — The
Mutinies at Rawul Pindee and Govindghur — Lord Dalhousie and
Sir Charles Napier . . . 303

CHAPTER V.

DISCIPLINE OP THE BENGAL ARMY.

Character of the Bengal Sepoy — Conflicting Opinions — Caste — ^The
Seniority System — ^The Officering of the Army — Regular and Irre-
gular Regiments — ^Want of Europeans — The Crimean War — Indian
Public Opinion — Summary of Deteriorating Influences • • 324

HOOK IIL— THE OUTBREAK OF THE MUTIIST.

CHAPTER L

LORD CANNING AND HIS COUNCIL.

Departure of Lord Dalhousie — His Character — The Question of Suc-
cession — Arrival of Lord Canning — His Early Career — Commence-
ment of his Administration — ^His Fellow-Councillors — General Low
— ^Mr. Dorin — ^Mr. Grant — Mr. Barnes Peacock — ^The Commander-
in-Chief , 353

CHAPTER II.

THE OUDB ADMINISTRATION AND THE PERSIAN WAR.

Lord Canning’s First Tear— The Oude Commission — Wajid Aji and j
the Embassy to England — The Persian War — The Question of
Command — James Outram — Central-Asian Policy — ^Dost Mahomed
— John Lawrence and Herbert Edward es at Peshawur — Henry Law-
rence in Lucknow ... 395

YXXl

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEK IIL

TOT mSING OE THE STOEM.

PAGB

Lord Canning and tlie Army — ^The Call for “ More Officers” — ^Dread
of the Black "Water — ^The General Service Enlistment Act — Anxie-
ties and Alarms — ^Missionary Efforts — Proselytising Officers — Poli-
tical Inquietudes — The Prophecy of Fifty-seven . . . . 4:55

CHAPTER IV.

THE EIBST OTTINY.

The new Rifled Musket — The Story of the Greased Cartridges — *
Dum-Dum and Barrackpore — ^Excitement in the Native Regiments
— ^Events at Berhampore — ^Mutiuv nf T^meteenth Regiment —

Conduct of Colonel Mitci^sd ^ . . . - - ^ 4S7

CHAPTER V.

PEOGBESS OE MUTINY.

Causes of delayed Action — The Government and the Departments —
Investigation of the Cartridge Question — Progress of Disaffection
an Jdarrackpore — Tlie Story of Mungul Pandy — Mutiny ot tne
Thirty-fourth — ^Disbandment of the Nineteenth . . . .610

CHAPTER VI.

EXCITEMENT IN XTPPEK INDIA.

Progress of Alarm — ^The Panic at Dmballah — General Anson and
the Rifle Dep6ts — ^Incendiary Fires — General Barnard — ^Events at
Meerut — The Bone-dust Flour — The Story of the Chupatties —
Intrigues of the Naua Sahib 64,8

CHAPTER VIL

BURSTING OE THE STOBM.

The Month of May — General Survey of Affairs — State of Feeling at
the Rifle Depots — The Rising Storm in Oude — The Revolt at
Meerut— The Seizure of Delhi — Measures of Lord Canning — ^The
Call for Succours . 58X

Appendix

. 619

FttEFAOfi.

It was not without much hesitation that I under-
took to write this narrative of the events, which have
imparted so painful a celebrity to the years 1857-58,
and left behind them such terrible remembrances.
Publicly and privately I had been frequently urged
to do so, before I could consent to take upon ihyself
a responsibility, which could not sit lightly on any
one capable of appreciating the magnitude of the
events themselves and of the many grave questions
which they suggested. If, indeed, it had not been
that, in course of time, I found, either actually in
my hands or within my reach, materials of history
such as it was at least improbable that any other
writer could obtain, I should not have ventured upon
so difficult a task. But having many important
collections of papers in my possession, and having
received promises of further assistance from surviv-
ing actors in the scenes to be described, I felt that,*
though many might write a better history of thd
Sepoy War, no one coizld write a more truthful one.

PREFACE.

So, relying on these external advantages to com-
pensate all inherent deficiencies, I commenced what
I knew must he a labour of years, but what I felt
would he also a labour of love. My materials were
too ample to he otherwise than most sparingly dis-
played. The prodigal citation of authorities has its
advantages ; but it encumbers the text, it impedes
the narrative, and swells to inordinate dimensions
the record of historical events. On a former occa-
sion, when I laid before the public an account of a
series of importanf transactions, mainly derived from
original documents, public and private, I quoted
those documents freely both in the text and in the
notes. As I was at that time wholly unknown to
the public, it was necessary that I should cite chapter
and verse to obtain credence for my statements.
There was no ostensible reason why I should have
known more about those transactions than any other
writer (for it was merely the accident of private
friendships and associations that placed such pro-
fuse materials in my possession), and it seemed to be
imperative upon me therefore to produce my ere
dentials. But, believing that this necessity no longer
exists, I have in the present work abstained from
adducing my authorities, for the mere purpose of
substantiating my statements. I have quoted the
voluminous correspondence in my possession only
where there is some dramatic force and propriety in
the words cited, or when they appear calculated,
without impeding the narrative, to give colour and
vitality to the story.

. . And here I may observe that, as on former occa-
sions, the historical materials which I have moulded
into this narrative are rather of a private than of
a public character. I have made but little use

PREFACE.

of recorded official documents. I do not mean
that access to such documents has not been ex-
tremely serviceable to me; but that it has rather
afforded the means of verifying or correcting state-
ments received from other sources than it has sup-
plied me with original materials. So far as respects
the accumulation of facts, this History would have
differe'd but slightly from what it is, if I had never
passed the door of a public office ; and, generally,
the same may be said of the opinions which I
have expressed. Those opinions, whether sound or
unsound, are entirely my own personal opinions —
opinions in many instances formed long ago, and
confirmed by later events and more mature consi-
deration. No one but myself is responsible for them;
no one else is in any way identified with them. In
the wide range of inquiry embraced by the considera-
tion of the manifold causes of the great convulsion of
1857, almost every grave question of Indian govern-
ment and administration presses forward, with more
or less importunity, for notice. Where, on many
points, opinions widely differ, and the policy, which
is the practical expression of them, takes various
shapes, it is a necessity that the writer of cotempo-
rary history, in the exercise of independent thought,
should find himself dissenting from the doctrines and
disapproving the actions of some authorities, living
and dead, who are worthy of all admiration and re-
spect. It is fortunate, when, as in the present in-
stance, this difference of opinion involves no diminu-
tion of esteem, and the historian can discern worthy
motives, and benevolent designs, and generous striv-
ings after good, in those whose ways he may think
erroneous and whose course of action he may deem
unwise.

xii PREFACE.

Indeed, the errors of which I have freely spoken
were, for the most part, strivings after good. It was
in the over-eager pursuit of Humanity and Civilisa-
tion that Indian statesmen of the new school were
betrayed into the excesses which have been so griev-
ously visited upon the nation. The story of the
Indian Rebellion of 1857 is, perhaps, the most signal
illustration of our great national character ever yet
recorded in the annals of our country. It was the
vehement self-assertion of the Englishman that pro-
duced this conflagration ; it was the same vehement
self-assertion that enabled him, by God’s blessing, to
trample it out. It was a noble egotism, mighty alike
in doing and in suffering, and it showed itself grandly
capable of steadfastly confronting the dangers which
it had brought down upon itself. If I have any pre-
dominant theory it is this : Because we were too
English the great crisis arose; but it was only be-
cause we were English that, when it arose, it did not
utterly overwhelm us.

It is my endeavour, also, to show how much both
of the dangers which threatened British dominion in
the East, and of the success with which they were
encountered, is assignable to the individual characters
of a few eminent men. "With this object I have sought
to bring the reader face to face with the principal
actors in the events of the Sepoy War, and to take a
personal interest in them. If it be true that the best
history is that which most nearly resembles a bundle
of biographies, it is especially true when said with
reference to Indian history ; for nowhere do the cha-
racters of individual Englishmen impress themselves
with a more vital reality upon the annals of the
cotmtry in which they live ; nowhere are there such
great opportunities of independent action ; nowhere

PBEPACE.

xiil

are developed such capacities for evil or for good, as
in our great Anglo-Indian Empire. If, then, in such
a work as this, the biographical element were not
prominently represented — the individualities of
such men as Dalhousie and Canning, as Henry and
John Lawrence, as James Outrara, as John Nichol-
son, and Herbert Edwardes, were not duly illus-
trated, there would be not only a cold and colourless,
but also an unfaithful, picture of the origin and pro-
gress of the War. But it is to be remarked that, in
proportion as the individuality of the English leaders
is distinct and strongly marked, that of the chiefs of
the insurrectionary movement is faint and undecided.
In the fact of this contrast we see the whole history
of the success which, by 0-od.’s providence, crowned

the efforts of our countrvmen. If the individual

▼

ener^es of the leaders of the revolt had been com-
mensurate with the power of the masses, we might
have failed to extinguish such a conflagration. But
the whole tendency of the English system had been
to crush out those energies so again, I say, we found
in the very circumstances which had excited the
rebellion the very elements of our success in sup-
pressing it. Over the Indian Dead Level which that
system had created, the English heroes marched tri-
umphantly to victory.

In conclusion, I have only to express my obliga-
tions to those who have enabled me to write this
History by supplying me with the materials -of which
it is composed. To the executors of the late Lord
Canning, who placed in my hands the private and
demi-official correspondence of the deceased states-
man, extending over the whole term of his Indian
administration, I am especially indebted. To Sir
John Lawrence and Sir Herbert Edwardes, who have

XIV

PBEFACK

furnished me with the most valuable materials for
my narrative of the rising in the Punjab and the
measures taken in that province for the re-capture of
Delhi ; to the family of the late Colonel Baird Smith,
for many interesting papers illustrative of the opera-
tions of the great siege ; to Sir James Outram, who
gave me before his death his correspondence relating
to the brilliant operations in Oude ; to Sir Robert
Hamilton, for much valuable matter in elucidation of
the history of the Central Indian Campaign ; and to
Mr. E. A. Reade, whose comprehensive knowledge
of the progress of events in the North-Western Pro-
vinces has been of material service to me, my warmest
acknowledgments are due. But to no one am I
more indebted than to Sir Charles Wood, Secretary
of State for India, .who has permitted me to con-
sult the official records of his Department — a privi-
lege wffiich has enabled me to make much better use
of the more private materials m my possession. No
one, however, can know better or feel more strongly
than myself, that much matter of interest contained
in the multitudinous papers before me is unrepre-
sented in my narrative. But such omissions are the
necestities of a history so fall of incident as this. If
I had yielded to the temptation to use mj illustrative
materials more freely, I should have expanded this
work beyond all acceptable limite.

London, October, lS64i.

. . . For to think that an handful of people can, with the

GREATEST COURAGE AND POLICY IN THE WORLD, EMBRACE TOO LARGE EX-
TENT OF DOMINION, IT MAT HOLD FOR A TIME, BUT IT WILL FAIL SUDDENLY.
— Bacon.

... As FOR MERCENARY FORCES (WHICH IS THE HELP IN THIS CASE),
ALL EXAMPLES SHOW THAT, WHATSOEVER ESTATE, OR PRINCE, DOTH REST
UPON THEM, HE MAY SPREAD HIS FEATHERS FOR A TIME, BUT HE WILL MEW
THEM SOON Bacon.

Ip there be fuel prepared, it is hard to tell whence THE SPARK

SHALL COME THAT SHALL SET IT ON FIRE. ThE MATTER OF SEDITIONS IS OF
TWO KINDS, much POVERTY AND MUCH DISCONTENTMENT. It IS CERTAIN,
SO MANY OVERTHROWN ESTATES, SO MANY VOTES FOR TROUBLES. . , . ThE
CAUSES AND MOTIVES FOR SEDITION ARE, INNOVATIONS IN RELIGION, TAXES,
ALTERATION OF LAWS AND CUSTOMS, BREAKING OF PRIVILEGES, GENERAL
OPPRESSION, ADVANCEMENT OF UNWORTHY PERSONS, STRANGERS, DEATHS,
DISBANDED SOLDIERS, FACTIONS GROWN DESPERATE ; AND WHATSOE’VER IN
OFFENDING PEOPLE JOINETH AND KNITTETH THEM IN A COMMON CAUSE,—
Bitcon.

niSTOET OF TIE SEPOY WAS.

BOOK I.— IKTEODTJCTOET.
[1846—1856.]

CHAPTER 1.

THE ADMINISTaATION OE LORD DALHOTTSIE — HIS EAEBITELL MIOTJTB—
RETEOSEECT OP THE PIEST SIKH WAE — THE MILITAKT OCCUPATION 01
THE PUNJAB — THE COUNCIL OP EEGENCT — THE SECOND SIKH ■WAE—

THE ANNEXATION OP THE PUNJAB — ITS ADMINISTBATION UNDEE THE
LA'WEBNOBS — THE CONQUEST OP PEGU.

Broken in bodily health, but not enfeebled in spirit, I85d.
by eight years of anxious toil, beneath an Indian
sun, Lord Dalhousie laid down the reins of govern-
ment and returned to his native country to die. Since
the reign of Lord Wellesley, so great in written history,
so momentous in practical results, there had been
no such administration as that of Lord Dalhousie;
there had been no period in the annals of the Anglo-
Indian Empire surcharged with such great political
events, none which nearly approached it in the rapidity
of its administrative progress. Peace and War had
yielded their fruits with equal profusion.

On the eve of resigning his high trust to the hands
of another, Lord Dalhousie dre'w up an elaborate state-

THE ADMDdSTSATION OF LOUD DALHOUSIE.

1806 ‘. paper reviewing the eventful years of his government.

He had reason to rejoice in the retrospect ; for he had
acted in accordance with the faith that was within
him, honestly and earnestly working out his cherished
principles, and there was a bright flush of success
over dl the apparent result. Peace and prosperity
smiled upon the empire. That empire he had vastly
extended, and by its extension he believed that he
had consolidated our rule and imparted additional
security to our tenure of the country.

Of Aese great successes some account should be
given at the outset of such a narrative as this ; for it
is only by understanding and appreciating them that
we can rightly estimate the subsequent crisis. It was
in the Punjab and in Oude that many of the most
important incidents of that crisis occurred. Lord
Dalhousie found them Foreign States; he left them
British Provinces.

184546 . Lord Hardinge conquered the Sikhs ; but he spared
First ocCTipa- the Punjab. Moderate in victory as resolute in war,
empire of Runjeet Singh, shorn only of its
outl3dng provinces, to be governed by his successors,
and strove to protect the boy-prince against the law-
lessness of his own soldiers. But it was felt that this
forbearance was only an experimental forbearance;
and the proclamation which announced the restora-
tion of the Punjab to the Maharajah Duleep Singh
sounded also a note of warning to the great military
autocracy which had weU-nigh overthrown the State.
“If this opportunity,” said the victor, “of rescuing
the Sikh nation from military anarchy and misrule be
neglected, and hostile opposition to the British army
he renevred, the Government of India will make such

THE MILITARY OCCUPATION OE LAHORE.

other arrangements for the future government of the 1846.
Punjab as the interests and security of the British
power may render just and expedient.” Thus was the
doubt expressed; thus were the consequences fore-
shadowed. It did not seem likely that the experi-
ment would succeed; but it was not less right to
make it. It left the future destiny of the empire,
under Providence, for the Sikhs themselves to deter-
mine. It taught them how to preserve their national
independence, and left them to work out the problem
with their own hands.

But Hardinge did more than this. He did not
interfere with the internal administration, but he esta-
blished a powerful military protectorate in the Punjab.

He left the Durbar to govern the country after its
own fashion, but he protected the Government against
the lawless domination of its soldiery. The Sikh army
was overawed by the presence of the British battalions ;
and if the hour had produced the man — if there had
been any wisdom, any love of country, in the councils
of the nation — ^the Sikh Empire might have survived
the great peril of the British military protectorate.

But there was no one worthy to rule ; no one able to
govern. The mother of the young Maharajah was
nominally the Regent. There have been great queens
in the East as in the West — ^women who have done
for their people what men have been incapable of
doing. But the mother of Duleep Singh was not one
of these. To say that she loved herself better than
her country is to use in courtesy the mildest words,
which do not actually violate truth. She was, indeed,
an evil presence in the nation. It rested with her to
choose a minister, and the choice which she made was
another great suicidal blow struck at the life of the
Sikh Empire. It may have been difficult in this

B 2

4 THE ADMmiSTEATION Of LOED DALHOUSIE.

1846 , emergency to select tlie riglit man, ftm, in truth, there
were not many wise men from whom a selection could
be made. The Queen-Mother cut through the difficulty
by selecting her paramour.

Lai Singh was unpopular with the Durbar; un-
popular with the people ; and he failed. He might
have been an able and an honest man, and yet have
been found wanting in such a conjuncture. But he
was probably the worst man in the Punjab on whom
the duty of reconstructing a strong Sikh Government
could have devolved. To do him justice, there were
great difficulties in his way. He had to replenish an
exhausted treasury by a course of unpopular retrench-
ments. Troops were to be disbanded and Jagheers
resumed. Lai Singh was not the man to do this, as
one bowing to a painful necessity, and sacrificing
himself to the exigencies of the State. Even in a coun-
try where political virtue was but little understood,
a course of duty consistently pursued for the benefit
of the nation might have ensured for him some sort
of respect. But whilst he was impoverishing others,
he was enriching himself. It was not the public
treasury, but the private purse that he sought to re-
plenish, and better men were despoiled to satisfy the
greed of his hungry relatives and friends. Vicious
among the vicious, he lived but for the indulgence of
his own appetites, and ruled but for his own aggran-
disement The favourite of the Queen, he was the
oppressor of the People. And though he, tried to
dazzle his British guests by rare displays of coxxrtesy
towards them, and made himself immensely popular
among all ranks of the Army of Occupation by his
incessant efforts to gratify them, he could not hide the
one great patent fact, that a strong Sikh Government

THE FALL OF LAL SINGH.

could never be established under the vruzeerat of Lai 1846 ,
Singh.

But the British were not responsible for the failure.

The Regent chose him ; and, bound by treaty not to
exercise any interference in the internal administra-
tion of the Lahore State, the British Government had
only passively to ratify the choice. But it was a state
of things burdened with evUs of the most obtrusive
kind. We were upholding an unprincipled ruler and
an unprincipled minister at the point of our British
bayonets, and thus aiding them to commit iniquities
which, without such external support, they would
not have long been suffered to perpetrate. The com-
pact, however, was but for the current year; and
even for that brief period there seemed but little pro-
bability of Lai Singh tiding over the difficulties and
dangers which beset his position.

Very soon his treachery undid him. False to his
own country, he was false also to the British Govern-
ment. The province of Cashmere, which was one of
the outlying dependencies taken by the British in pay-
ment of the war-charges, had been made over to Gholab
Singh, chief of the great Jummoo family, who had
paid a million of money for the cession. But the
transfer had been resisted by the local governor, who
had ruled the province under the Sikh Rajahs, and
covertly Lai Singh had encouraged the resistance.

The nominal offender was brought to public trial, but Dec. is 16 .
it was felt that the real crimmal was Lai Singh, and
that upon the issue of the inquiry depended the fate
of the minister. It was soon apparent that he was a
traitor, and that the other, though for intelligible
reasons of his own, reluctant to render an account of
his stewardship, was little more than a tool in his

6 THE ADMINISTEATIOX OF LOUD DALHOUSIE.

IS46. hands. The disgrace of the minister was the im-
mediate result of the investigation. He left the Durbar
tent a prisoner under a guard, an hour before his own
body-guard, of Sikh soldiers ; and the great seal of the
Maharajah was placed in the hands of the British
Resident. So fell Lai Singh ; and so fell also the first
experiment to reconstruct a strong Sikh Government
on a basis of national independence.

Another experiment was then to be tried. There
was not a native of the country to whose hands the
destinies of the empire could be safely entrusted. Tf
the power of the English conqueror were demanded
to overawe the turbulent military element, English
wisdom and English integrity were no less needed, in
that conjuncture, to quicken and to purify the corrupt
councils of the State. Sikh statesmanship, protected
against the armed violence of the Praetorian bands,
which had overthrown so many ministries, had been
fairly tried, and had been found miserably wanting.
A purely native Government was not to be hazarded
again. Averse as Hardinge had been, and stiU was,
to sanction British interference in the internal ad-
ministration of the Punjab, there was that in the com-
plications before him which compelled him to over-
come his reluctance. The choice, indeed, lay between
a half measure, which might succeed, though truly
there was small hope of success, and the total abandon-
ment of the country to its own vices, which would
have been speedily followed, in self-defence, by our
direct assumption of the Government on our own
account. Importuned by the Sikh Durbar, in the
name of the Maharajah, Hardinge tried the former
course. The next effort, therefore, to save the Sikh
Empire from self-destruction, embraced the idea of a
native Government, presided over by a British states-

HENKY LAWKENCE.

man. A Ccsiicil of Regency was instituted, to be
composed of Sikh chiefs, under the superintendence
and control of the Resident ; or, in other words, the
British Resident became the virtxial ruler of the
country.

And this time the choice, or rather the accident, of
the man was as propitious, as before it had been
untoward and perverse. The English officer possessed
weU-nigh aU the qualities which the Sikh Sirdar so
deplorably lacked. A captain of the Bengal Artillery,
holding the higher rank of colonel by brevet for good
service, Henry Lawrence had graduated in Punjabee
diplomacy under George Clerk, and had accompanied
to Caubul the Sikh Contingent, attached to Pollock’s
retributory force, combating its dubious fidelity, and
controlling its predatory excesses on the way. After
the return of the expedition to the British provinces,
he had been appointed to represent our interests in
Nepaul ; and there — ^for there was a luU in the san-
guinary intrigues of that semi-barbarous Court — im-
mersed in his books, and turning to good literary pur-
pose his hours of leisure, he received at Catamandoo
intdligence of the Sikh invasion, and of the death of
George Broadfoot, and was summoned to take the
place of that lamented officer as the agent of the
Governor-General on the frontier. In the negotiations
which followed the conquest of the Khalsa army, he
had taken the leading part, and, on the restoration of
peace, had been appointed to the office of British
Resident, or Minister, at Lahore, under the first ex-
periment of a pure Sikh Government hedged in by
British troops.

If the character of the man thus placed at the head
of affairs could have secured the success of this great
compromise, it would have been successful far beyond

1846 .

1843 .

THE ADMINISTMTION OE LORD DALHOUSlE.

1846. the expectations of its projectors. For no man ever
undertook a high and important trust with a more
solemn sense of his responsibility, or ever, with more
singleness of purpose and more steadfast sincerity of
heart, set himself to work, with God’s blessing, to
turn a great opportunity to great account for the
benefit of his fellows. In Henry Lawrence a pure
transparent nature, a simple manliness and truthful-
ness of character, were combined with b'gh intel-
lectual powers, and personal energies which nothing
earthly could subdue. I may say it here, once for
all, at the very outset of my story, that nowhere does
this natural simplicity and truthfulness of character
so often as in India survive a long career of public
service. In that country public men are happily not
exposed to the pernicious influences which in England
shrivel them so fast into party leaders and parlia-
mentary chiefs. With perfect singleness of aim and
pure sincerity of purpose, they go, with level eyes,
straight at the public good, never looking up in fear
at the suspended sword of a parliamentary majority,
and never turned aside by that fear into devious paths
of trickery and finesse. It may be that ever since the
days of Clive and Omichund an unsavoury odour has
pervaded the reputation of Oriental diplomacy ; but
the fact is, that our greatest successes have been
achieved by men incapable of deceit, and by means
which have invited scrutiny. When we have opposed
craft to craft, and have sought to out-juggle our op-
ponents, the end has been commonly disastrous. It
is only by consummate honesty and transparent truth-
fulness that the Talleyrands of the East have been
beaten by such mere children in the world’s ways as
Mountstuart Elphinstone, Charles Metcalfe, James
Outram, and Henry Lawrence.

HENRI LAWRENCE.

Henry Lawrence, indeed, was wholly without guile. 1846.
He had great shrewdness and sagacity of character,
and he could read and understand motives, to which
his own breast was a stranger, for he had studied well
the Oriental character. But he was singularly open
and unreserved in all his dealings, and would rather
have given his antagonist an advantage than have
condescended to any smaE arts and petty trickeries
to secure success. All men, indeed, trusted him ; for
they knew that there was nothing selfish or sordid
about him ; that the one desire of his heart was to
benefit the people of the country in which it had
pleased God to cast his lot. But he never suffered
this plea of beneficence to prevail against his sense of
justice. He was eminently, indeed, a just man, and
altogether incapable of that casuistry which gives
a gloss of humanity to self-seeking, and robs people
for their own good. He did not look upon the mis-
government of a native State as a valid reason for the
absorption of its revenues, but thought that British
power noight be exercised for the protection of the
oppressed, and British wisdom for the instruction and
reformation of their oppressors, without adding a few
more thousand square miles to the area of our British
possessions, and a few more millions of people to the
great muster-roll of British subjects in the East.

Above the middle height, of a spare, gaunt frame,
and a worn face bearing upon it the traces of mental
toil and bodily suffering, he impressed you, at first
sight, rather with a sense of masculine energy and
resolution than of any milder and more endearing
qualities. But when you came to know him, you saw
a,t once that beneath that rugged exterior there was a
heart gentle as a woman’s, and you recognised in his
words and in his manner the kindliness of nature^

THE ADMINISTKITION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1815, whicli won the aflfection of all who came within its
reach, and by its large and liberal manifestations made
his name a very household word with thousands, who
had never felt the pressure of his hand or stood in his
living presence. But, with all this, though that name
was in men’s mouths and spoken in many languages,
no unknown subaltern had a more lowly mind or a
more unassuming deportment.

Such was the man who now found himself the
virtual sovereign of the empire of Runjeet Singh.
The new protectorate, established at the end of 1846,
gave to Henry Lawrence “ unlimited authority,” “ to
direct and control every department of the State.”
He was to he assisted in this great work by an efficient
establishment of subordinates, but it was no part of
the design to confer upon them the executive manage-
ment of affairs. The old officers of the Sikh Govern-
ment were left to carry on the administration, gmded
and directed by their British allies. Under such a
system corruption and oppression could no longer run
riot over the face of the land. It was a protectorate
for the many, not for the few; and for a while it
seemed that all classes were pleased with the arrange-
ment. Outwardly, indeed, it did not seem that feel-
ings of resentment against the British Government
were cherished by any persons but the Queen-Mother
and her degraded paramour.

And so, in the spring of 1847, the political horizon
was almost unclouded. The Council of Regency,
under the control of Henry Lawrence, seemed to be
carrying on the government with a sincere desire to
secure a successful result. Tranquillity had been re-
stored; confidence and order were fast returning.
The Sikh soldieryappeared to be contented with their

ELEMENTS OP DANGER.

lot, and to be gradually acquiring habits of discipline ISA^.
and obedience, under a system which rendered them
dependent on the British oficers for whatever most
promoted their interests and contributed to their
comforts. But it did not escape the sagacious mind
of the Resident, that serene as was the aspect of
affairs, and promising as were the indications of con-
tinued repose, there were, beneath all this surface-
calm, dangerous elements at work, waiting only for
time and circumstance to call them into full activity.

The memory of frequent defeat was stiU too fresh in
the minds of the humbled Khalsa to suffer them to
indulge in visions of at once re-acquiring their lost
supremacy. But as time passed and the impression
waxed fainter and fainter, it was weU-nigh certain
that the old hopes would revive, and that outbursts
of desperate Asiatic zeal might be looked for in
quarters where such paroxysms had long seemed to
be necessary to the very existence of a lawless and
tumultuous class. It is a trick of our self-love — of
our national vanity — to make us too often delude
ourselves with the belief that British supremacy must
be welcome wheresoever it obtrudes itself. But Henry
Lawrence did not deceive himself in this wise. He
frankly admitted that, however benevolent our motives,
and however conciliatory our demeanour, a British
army could not garrison Lahore, and a British func-
tionary supersede the Sikh Durbar, without exciting
bitter discontents and perilous resentments. He saw
around him, struggling for existence, so many high
officers of the old Sikh armies, so many favourites of
the old line of Wuzeers now cast adrift upon the world,
without resources and without hope under the exist-
ing system, that when he remembered their lawless

THE ADMINISTJUTION OF LOED DALHOUSIE.

IS47. habits, their headstrong folly, their desperate suicidal
zeal, he could but wonder at the perfect peace which
then pervaded the land.

But whatsoever might be taking shape in the future,
the present was a season of prosperity — a time of
promise — and the best uses were made by the British
functionaries of the continued calm. Interference in
the civil administration of the country was exercised
only when it could be turned to the very apparent
advantage of the people. British authority and British
integrity were then employed in the settlement of
long-unsettled districts, and in the development of the
resources of long-neglected tracts of country. The
subordinate ofSlcers thus employed under the Resident
were few, but they were men of no common ability
and energy of character — soldiers such as Edwardes,
Nicholson, ReyneU Taylor, Lake, Lumsden, Becher,
George Lawrence, and James Abbott ; civilians such
as Vans Agnew and Arthur Cocks — ^men, for the
most part, whose deeds will find ample record in these
pages. They had unbounded confidence in their
chief, and their chief had equal confidence in them.
Acting, with but few exceptions, for the majority
were soldiers, in a mixed civil and military character,
they associated with all classes of the community;
and alike by their courage and their integrity they
sustained the high character of the nation they re-
presented, One common spirit of humanity seemed
to animate the Governor-General, the Resident, and
his Assistants. A well-armed blow was struck at
infanticide, at Suttee, and at the odious traffic in
female slaves. In the agricultural districts, a system
of enforced labour, which had pressed heavily on the
ryots, was soon also in course of abolition. The weak
were everywhere wot^ted against the strong. An

rmST ADMINISTEATIVE EFFOETS.

entire revision of the judicial and revenue systems of 1847-.
the country — ^if systems they can be called, where
system there was none — ^was attempted, and with
good, success. New customs rules were prepared, by
which the people were greatly gainers. Every legiti-
mate means of increasing the revenue, and. of con-
trolling unnecessary expenditure, were resorted to, and.
large savings were effected, at no loss of efficiency in
any department of the State. The cultivators were en-
couraged to sink wells, to irrigate their lands, and
otherwise to increase the productiveness of the soil,
alike to their own advantage and the profit of the
State. And whilst everjdhing was thus being done
to advance the general prosperity of the people, and
to ensure the popularity of British occupation among
the industrial classes, the Army was propitiated by the
introduction of new and improved systems of pay
and pension, and taught to believe that what they
had lost in opportunities of plunder, and in irregular
largesses, had been more than made up to them by
certainty and punctuality of payment, and the interest
taken by the British oificers in the general welfare of
their class.

As the year advanced, these favourable appearances
rather improved than deteriorated. In June, the
Eesident reported that a large majority of the dis-
banded soldiers had returned to the plough or to
trade, and that the advantages of British influence to
the cultivating classes were every day becoming more
apparent. But stiU Lawrence clearly discerned the
■fact that although the spirit of insurrection was at
rest in the Punjab, it was. not yet dead. There were
sparks flying about here and there, which, alighting
on coihbustible materials, might speedily excite a
blaze. “ If every Sirdar and Sikh in the Punjab,” he

14 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DAIHOIJSIE,

1847 . wrote, with the candour and good sense which are so
conspicuous in aU his communications, “ were to avow
himself satisfied with the humbled position of his
country, it would be the extreme of infatuation to
believe hiin, or to doubt for a moment that among
the crowd who are loudest in our praise there are
many who cannot forgive our victory, or even our
forbearance, and who chafe at their own loss of power
in exact proportion as they submit to ours.” People
were not wanting even then, in our camp, to talk with
ominous head-shakings of the “ Caubul Catastrophe,”
and to predict all sorts of massacres and misfortunes.
But there was no parallel to be drawn between the
two cases, for an overweening sense of security had
not taken possession of the British functionaries at
Lahore. They had not brought themselves to believe
that the country was “ settled,” or that British occu-
pation was “ popular” among the chiefs and people of
the Punjab. With God’s blessing they were doing
their best to deserve success, but they knew well that
they might some day see the ruin of their hopes, the
failure of their experiments, and they were prepared,
in the midst of prosperity, at any hour to confront
disaster.

Even then, fair as was the prospect before us, there
was one great blot upon the landscape ; for whilst the
restless nature of the Queen-Mother was solacing itself
with dark intrigues, there was a continual source of
disquietude to disturb the mind of the Eesident with
apprehensions of probable outbreaks and seditions.
She hated the British with a deadly hatred. They
had deprived her of power. They had torn her lover
from her arms. They were training her son to be-
come a puppet in their hands. To foment hostility
against them, wheresoever there seemed to be any

BANISHMENT OF THE MAHARANEE

hope of successful revolt, and to devise a plot for the 1847 .
murder of the Resident, were among the cherished
objects by which she sought to gratify her malice.

But she could not thus labour in secret. Her schemes
were detected, and it was determined to remove her
from Lahore. The place of banishment was Sheiko-
poor, in a quiet part of the country, and in the midst
of a Mussulman population. When the decision was
communicated to her by her brother, she received it
with apparent indifference. She was not one to give
her enemies an advantage by confessing her wounds
and bewailing her lot. She uttered no cry of pain,
hut said that she was ready for anything, and at once
prepared for the journey.

The autumn passed quietly away. But an im-
portant change was impending. Lord Ilardinge was
about to lay down the reins of government, and
Colonel Lawrence to leave the Punjab for a time.

The health of the latter had long been failing. He
had tried in August and September the effect of the
bracing hiU air of Simlah. It had revived him for a
while, but his medical attendants urged him to resort
to the only remedy which could arrest the progress of
disease ; and so, with extreme reluctance, he con-
sented to quit his post, and to accompany Lord
Hardinge to England. He went ; and Sir Frederick
Currie, a public servant of approved talent and in-
tegrity, who, in the capacity of Political Secretary,
had accompanied the Governor-General to the bahte
of the Sutlej, and who had been subsequently created
a baronet and appointed a member of the Supreme
Council of India, was nominated to act as Resident in
his place. .

Meeting the stream of European revolution as they
journeyed homewards, Hardinge and Lawrence canie

THE ABMiraSTItATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1848. overland to England in tlie early spring of 1848.
Brief space is allowed to me for comment ; but before
I cease to write Lord Hardinge’s name in connexion
with Sikh politics and history, I must give expression,
if only in a single sentence, to the admiration with
which I regard his entire policy towards the Punjab,
It was worthy of a Christian warrior : it was worthy
of a Christian statesman. It is in no wise to be
judged by results, stiU less by accidents not assign-
able to errors inherent in- the original design. What
Hardinge did, he did because it was right to do it.
His forbearance under provocation, his moderation in
the hour of victory foreshadowed the humanity of
his subsequent measures. It was his one desire to
render British connexion with the Punjab a blessing
to the Sikhs, without destroying their national inde-
pendence. The spirit of Christian philanthropy moved
at his bidding over the whole face of the country —
not the mere image of a specious benevolence dis-
guising the designs of our ambition and the impulses
of our greed, but an honest, hearty desire to do good
without gain, to save an Empire, to reform a people,
and to leave behind us the marks of a hand at once
gentle and powerful — ^gentle to cherish and powerful
only to sustain.

iwn^uest of The portfolio of the Indian Government now passed
unjab. hands of Lord Dalhousie, a young statesman

of high promise, who, in the divisions of party politics
at home, had been ranged among the followers of Sir
Robert Peel, and professed the newly- developed libe-
ralism of that great parliamentary chief. Held in
esteem as a man of moderate views, of considerable
administrative ability, and more than common assi*

LORD DALHOIISIE.

(luity in the public service, his brief career as an
English statesman seemed to afford good hope that, in
the great descriptive roll of Indian Viceroys, his name
■would be recorded as that of a ruler distinguished
rather for the utility than for the brilliancy of his ad-
ministration. And so, doubtless, it seemed to him-
self. What India most wanted at that time was Peace.
Ijeft to her repose, even -without external aid, she
might soon have recovered from the effects of a suc-
cession of wasting wars. But, cherished and fostered
by an unambitious and enlightened ruler, there was
good prospect of a future of unexampled prosperity —
of great material and moral advancement — of that
oft-promised, ever realisable, but still unrealised
blessing, the “development of the resources of the
country.” The country wanted Railroads, and the
people Education, and there was good hope that Dal-
housie woxild give them both.

When he looked beyond the frontier he saw that
everything was quiet. The new year had dawned
auspiciously on the Punjab. The attention of the
British functionaries, ever earnest and active in well-
doing — ^for the disciples of Henry Lawrence had
caught much of the zealous humanity of their master
— ^was mainly directed to the settlement of the Land
Revenue and the improvement of the judicial system
of the country. They had begun codif3dng in good
earnest, and laws, civil and criminal, grew apace
under their hands. In a state of things so satisfactory
as this there was little to call for special remark, and
the Governor-General, in his letters to the Home
Government, contented himself with the simple ob-
servation, that he “forwarded papers relating to the
Punjab.” But early in May intelligence had reached
L;aicutta which impelled him to indite a more stirring-

184 %'

18 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1848 . epistle. The Punjab was on the eve of another
crisis.

lu September, 1844, Sawun Mull, the able and
energetic Governor* of Mooltan, was shot to death by
an assassin. He was succeeded by his son Moolraj,
who also had earned for himself the reputation of a
chief with just and enlightened views of government,
and considerable administrative ability. But he had
also a reputation very dangerous in that country : he
was reputed to be very rich. Sawun Mull was be-
lieved to have amassed immense treasures in Mool-
tan ; and on the instalment of his son in the govern-
ment, the Lahore Durbar demanded from him a suc-
cession-dutyf of a million of money. The exorbitant
claim was not complied with ; but a compromise was
effected, by which Moolraj became bound to pay to
Lahore less than a fifth of the required amount. And
this sum would have been, paid, but for the convul-
sions which soon began, to rend the country, and the
disasters which, befel the Durbar.

On the re-establishment of the Sikh Government
the claim was renewed. It was intimated to the
Dewan that if the stipulated eighteen lakhs, with cer-
tain amounts due for arrears, were paid into the
Lahore Treasury, he would be allowed to continue in
charge of Mooltan ; but that if he demurred, troops
would be sent to coerce him. He refused payment of
the money, and troops were accordingly sent against
him. Thus threatened, he besought the British Go-
vermnent to interfere in his favour, and consented to
adjust the matter through the arbitration of the Resi-
dent. ' The result was, that he went to Lahore in the

M word most in- finanoial ox

telligjible to ordm^Englisli readers, of the district, with the'eohtrol of

It does not fitly Tepresent the the internal administration,
owe held by the "Dewan,” who was t

AFFAIES OF MOOLTAN.

autumn of 184:6 ; promised to pay by instalments tbe isis.
money claimed ; and was mulcted in a portion, of tbe
territories from wbicb he had drawn his revenue. The
remainder was farmed out to him for a term of three
years. With this arrangement he appeared to be
satisfied. He was anxious to obtain the guarantee of
the British Government ; but his request was refused,
and he returned to Mooltan without it.

For the space of more than a year, Moolraj re-
mained in peaceful occupation of the country which
had been leased out to him. There was no attempt,
on the part of the British functionaries, to interfere
with the aflhirs of Mooltan. That territory was espe-
cially exempted from the operation of the revenue
settlement, which had taken effect elsewhere, and of
the new customs regulations which had been esta-
blished in other parts of the Punjab. But the com-
pact which had been entered into with the Lahore
Durkar did not sit easily upon him. He thought, or
affected to think, that its terms were too rigorous;
and accordingly, about the close of 1847, he repaired
to the capital to seek some remission of them. He
soon began intriguing with the Durbar for the reduc-
tion of the stipulated rents ; and not coming to any
satisfactory arrangement, intimated his wish to resign
a charge which he had found so little profitable. He
was told that his resignation, when formally tendered,
would be accepted ; but was recommended to reflect
upon the subject before finally coming to a determi-
nation, which could not be subsequently revoked.
Moolraj quitted Lahore ; and sent in first a somewhat
vague, and afterwards a more distinct, resignation of
his office ; and the Durbar at once appointed a suc-
cessor. Sjrdar Kan Singh, who was described as “a
brave soldier and intelligent man,” was nominated to

THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

‘a4S. the Governorship of Mooltan, on a fixed annual
salary. At the sanae time, Mr. Vans Agnew, a civil
servant of the Company, and Lieutenant Anderson,
of the Bombay army, were despatched to Mooltan
with the new Governor, and an escort of five hundred
men, to receive charge of the place. On their arrival
before the city there were no symptoms of any hostile
intentions on the part of its occupants. Moolraj him-
self waited on the British officers on the 18th of April,
and was peremptorily called upon to give in his ac-
counts. Disconcerted and annoyed, he quitted their
presence, but next morning he met them with a
calm aspect, and conducted them through the fort.
Two companies of Goorkhas and some horsemen of
the escort were placed in possession of one of the
fort-gates. The crisis was now at hand. Moolraj
formally gave over charge of the fort; and as the
party retired through the gate, the British officers
were suddenly attacked and severely wounded. Mool-
raj, who was riding with them at the time, offered no
assistance, but, setting spurs to his horse, galloped
off in the direction of his garden-house, whilst the
wounded officers were carried to their own camp by
Kan Singh and a party of the Goorkhas.

In the course of the following day all the Mooltanee
troops were in a state of open insurrection. Moolraj
himself, who may not have been guilty in the first in-
stance of an act of premeditated treachery, and who
subsequently pleaded that he was coerced by his
troops, sent excuses to Vans Agnew, who, with the
generous confidence of youth, acquitted him of aU
participation in the outrage. But he was soon heart
and soul in the work ; and his emissaries plied their
trade of corruption with unerring effect. Before
nightfall, the commandant of the escort, with all his

MURDEK OF AGNETV AND ANDERSON.

men, went over to the enemy. The building in which 1848.
the wounded officers lay was surrounded. A motley
crew of rufS.ans — soldiers and citizens — ^men of all
classes, young and old, moved by one common im-
pulse, one great thirst of blood, came yelling and
shouting around the abode of the doomed Feringhees.

In they rushed, with a savage cry, and surrounded
their victims. The wounded officers lay armed on
their beds, and helpless, hopeless as they were, put
on the bold front of intrepid Englishmen, and were
heroes to the last. Having shaken hands, and bade
each other a last farewell, they turned upon their
assailants as best they could; but overpowered by
numbers, they fell, declaring in the prophetic lan-
guage of death, that thousands of their countrymen
would come to avenge them. The slaughter tho-
roughly accomplished, the two bodies were dragged
out of the mosq^ue, and barbarously mutilated by the
murderers, with every indignity that malice could
devise.

Irretrievably committed in the eyes both of our coun-
trymen and his own, Moolraj now saw that there was
no going back ; he had entered, whether designedly
or not, on a course which admitted of no pause, and
left no time for reflection. All the dormant energies
of his nature were now called into full activity. He
took command of the insurgents-— identified himself
with their cause — ^bestowed largesses upon the men
who had been most active in the assault upon the
British officers, retained all who would take service
•\yith him,, laid in stores, collected money, and ad-
dressed letters to other chiefs urging them to resist-
ance. He had never been looked 'upon by others —
never regarded himself^ — ^as a man to become the leader
of a great national movement ; but now circumstances

THE ADMINIStKATlON OF L'ORO DALHOUSIE.

had done for him what he would never Avillingly have
shaped out for himself ; so he bowed to fate, and be-
came a hero.

Thus was the second Sikh War commenced. Out-
wardly, it was hut the revolt of a local government —
the rebellion of an ofiftcer of the Sikh State against
the sovereign power of the land. But, rightly con-
sidered, it was of far deeper significance. Whether
Moolraj had been incited to resistance by the prompt-
ings of a spirit far more bitter in its resentments, and
more active in its malignity than his own, is not very
apparent. But it is certain that when he raised the
standard of rebellion at Mooltan, he did but antici-
pate a movement for which the whole country was
ripe. Already had ominous reports of ill-concealed
disaffection come in from somfe of the outlying dis-
tricts, and though the mortifying fact was very re-
luctantly believed, it is certain that the state of things
which Henry Lawrence had predicted was already a
present reality, and that the Sikhs, chafing under the
irritating interference of the European stranger, were
about to make a common effort to expel him. A finer
body of officers than those employed under the British
Resident in the Punjab seldom laboured for the good
of a people. That they worked, earnestly and assi-
duously, animated by the purest spirit of Christian
benevolence, is not to be doubted. But it was not
in the nature of things that even if the thing done
had been palatable to the Sikhs, they would have
reconciled themselves to the doers of it. Habituated
to rule in aU parts of the world, and to interfere in
the affairs of people of all colours and creeds, Eng-
lishmen are slow to familiarise themselves mth the
idea of the too probable unpopularity of their inter-
ference They think that if they mean well they
must secure confidence. They do not consider that

HBST ADMINISTEATIVE EFFORTS. 23

our beneficent ways may not be more in accordance 184S.
with the national taste than our round hats and stiff
neckcloths ; and that even if they were, alien inter-
ference must in itself be utterly distasteful to them.

It is not to be doubted, I say, that the young Eng-
lishmen first employed in the Punjab laboured earn-
estly for the good of the people ; but their very pre-
sence was a sore in the flesh of the nation, and if they
had been endowed with superhuman wisdom and
angelic benevolence, it would have made no differ-
ence in the sum total of popular discontent.

But it is probable that some mistakes were com-
mitted — the inevitable growth of benevolent igno-
rance and energetic inexperience — at the outset of
our career as Punjabee administrators. The intei'-
ference appears to have been greater than was con-
templated in the original design of the Second Pro-
tectorate. At that time the God Terminus was held
by many of our administrators in especial veneration.

The Theodolite, the Reconnoitring Compass, and the
Measuring Chain were the great emblems of British
rule. And now these mysterious instruments began
to make their appearance in the Punjab. We were
taking sights and measuring angles on the outskirts
of civilisation ; and neither the chiefs nor the people
could readily persuade themselves that we were
doing all this for their good ; there was an appear-
ance in it of ulterior design. And, as I have
hinted, the agents employed were sometimes wholly
inexperienced in business of this kind. “ My pre-
sent rdle" wrote a young ensign* of two years’
standing in the service, whose later exploits will
be recorded in these pages, “ is to survey a part

* W. R, Hodson C'llodsQn df the fate of Andersou at Kooltan, for
Hod$on*s Horse”), January, 1843. he had been selected in the first ia*

This young officer narrowly escaped stauce to acconijpany V’ahs Aguevr.

24 THE ADMINISTEATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1548. of the country lying along the left bank of the
Ravee and below the hills, and I am daily and all
day at work with compasses and chain, pen and
pencil, following streams, diving into valleys, bur-
rowing into hiUs, to complete my work. I need
hardly remark, that having never attempted anything
of the kind, it is bothering at first. I should not be
surprised any day to be told to build a ship, compose
a code of laws, or hold assizes. In fact, ’tis the way
in India ; every one has to teach himself his work,
and to do it at the same time.” Training of this kind
has made the finest race of oflS.cers that the world has
ever seen. But the novitiate of these men may have
teemed with blunders fatal to the people among whom
they were sent, in all the self-confidence of youth, to
learn their diversities of work. As they advance in
years, and every year know better how difficult a
thing it is to administer the affairs of a foreign people,
such public servants often shudder to think of the
errors committed, of the wrong done, when they
served their apprenticeship in government without a
master, and taught themselves at the expense of
thousands. The most experienced administrators in
the present case might have failed from the want of
a right understanding of the temper of the people.
But it was the necessity of our position that some
who were set over the officers of the Sikh Govern-
ment knew little of the people and little of adminis-
tration. They were able, indefatigable, and con-
scientious. They erred only because they saw too
much and did too much, and had not come to under-
stand the wise policy of shutting their eyes and
leaving alone.

And so, although the rebellion of Moolraj was
at first only a local outbreak, and the British autho-
rities were Avell disposed to regard it as a movement

EVILS OE DELAY.

against the Sikh Government, not as an outrage espe-
cially directed against ourselves, that fiction could
not be long maintained — ^for every day it became more
and more apparent that the whole country was ripe for
another war "with the intruding Feringhee. The Dur-
bar officers did not hesitate to express their conviction
that to send Sikh troops to act against Moolraj would
only be to swell the number of his adherents. To
have despatched with them a small English force
would have been to risk its safety and precipitate
the conflict. An overwhelming display of force, on
the part of the British Government, might have
crushed the rebellion at Mooltan and retarded the
general rising of the country. But the season was
far advanced ; the responsibility was a great one.
The Commander-in-Chief of the British army in India
was not far distant. Currie, therefore, though his
own judgment inclined to the commencement of im-
mediate hostilities, rightly referred the momentous
question to the military chief. Lord Gough was
against immediate action ; and the head of the In-
dian Government unreservedly endorsed the de-
cision.

The remnant of the old Khalsa army eagerly watched
the result, and were not slow to attribute our in-
activity, at such a moment, to hesitation — ^to fear —
to paralysis. I am not writing a military history of
the Second Sikh War, and the question now suggested
is one which I am not called upon to discuss. But I
think that promptitude of action is often of more im-
portance than completeness of preparation, and that
to show ourselves confident of success is in most cases
to attain it.- The British power in India cannot
afford to be quiescent under insult and outrage. De-
lay is held to be a sign of weakness. It encourages
enmity and confirms vacillation. It is a disaster in

1813 .

26 TEE ADMKISmTION OF LOED DALHOUSIE.

1848. itself— more serious, often, than any that can arise

from insufficient preparation, and that great bugbear
the inclemency of the season. On the other hand,
it is not to be forgotten that to despise our enemies is
a common national mistake, and that sometimes it
has been a fatal one. We have brought calamities
on ourselves by oUr rashness as we have by oiir
indecision. The History of India teems with ex-
amples of both results ; the most profitable lesson to
be learnt from which is, that, however wise we may
be after the event, criticism in such a case ought to
be diffident and forbearing.

But whilst the Oommander-in-Chief, in the cool
mountain air of Simlah, was deciding on the impossi-
bility of commencing military operations, a young
lieutenant of the Bengal army, who had been engaged
in the Revenue settlement of the country about Bun-
noo, was marching down upon Mooltan with a small
body of troops, to render assistance to his brother-
officers in their perilous position, and to support the
authority of the Lahore Durbar. A letter from
Vans Agnew, dictated by the wounded man, had pro-
videntially fallen into his hands. He saw at once the
emergency of the case ; he never hesitated; but aban-
doning all other considerations, improvised the best
force that could be got together, and, with fifteen
hundred men and two pieces of artillery, marched
forth in all the eager coiifidence of youth, hoping
that it might be his privilege to rescue his country-
men from the danger that beset them.

The name of this young officer was Herbert Ed-
wardes. A native of Frodley, in Shropshire, the son
of a country clergyman, educated at fong’s College,
London, he had entered tlie Company’s service as a
cadet of infantry, at an age somewhat more advanced

HEKBERT EDWARDES.

ttan that which sees the initiation into military life IS-iS.
of the majority of young officers. But at an age
much earlier than that which commonly places them
in possession of the most superficial knowledge of the
history and politics of the East, young Edwardes had
acquired a stock of information, and a capacity for
judging rightly of passing events, which would have
done no discredit to a veteran soldier and diplomatist.

He had served but a few years, when his name be-
came familiar to English readers throughout the Pre-
sidency to which he belonged, as one of the ablest
anonymous writers in the country. His literary
talents, like his military qualities, were of a bold,
earnest, impulsive character. Whatever he did, he
did rapidly and well. He was precisely the kind of
man to attract the attention and retain the favour of
such an officer as Henry Lawrence, who, with the
same quiet love of literature, combined a keen appre-
ciation of that energy and fire of character which
shrink from no responsibility, and are ever seeking to
find an outlet in dashing exploits. In one of the
earliest and most striking scenes of the Punjabee
drama, Edwardes had acted a distinguished part.'

When the insurrection broke out in Cashihere, he
was despatched to Jummoo, to awaken Gholab Singh
to a sense of his duty in that conjuncture ; and there
are few more memorable and impressive incidents in
Sikh history than that which exhibited a handful of
British officers controlling the movements of large
bodies of foreign troops, — ^the very men, and under
the very leaders, who, so short a time before, had
contested with us on the banks of the Sutlej the
sovereignty of Hindustan.

On the reconstruction of the Sikh Governmentj
after the deposition of Lai Singh, Herbert Edwardes

THE ADMINISTRATION OE LORD DALHOUSIE.

1848. was one of the ofl5.cers selected to superintend the
internal administration of the country ; and he had just
completed the Revenue settlement of Bunnoo, when
the startling intelligence of the Mooltanee outbreak
reached his camp. He marched at once to succour
his brother-officers ; crossed the Indus, and took pos-
session of Leia, the chief city in the Sindh Saugor
Doab. But tidings by this time had reached him of
the melancholy fate of Agnew and Anderson, and
there was then no profit in the immediate movement
on Mooltan to compensate tor its certain danger. But
the demonstration still had its uses. It was something

that there was a force in the field with a British officer
at the head of it to assert the cause of order and au-
thority in the name of the Maharajah of the Punjab.
Such a force might, for a time at least, hold rebellion
in check in that part of the country. But Edwardes
dreamt of higher service than this. To the south of
Mooltan, some fifty miles, lies Bahwulpore, in the
chief of which place we believed that we had a
staunch ally. In the name of the British Government,
Edwardes called upon him to move an auxiliary force
.upon Mooltan; and he had little doubt that, after
forming a junction with these troops, he could
capture the rebel stronghold. The confidence of the
young soldier, stimulated by a victory which he
gained over a large body of rebels on the great anni-
versary of Waterloo, saw no obstacle to this enterprise
which could not be overcome if the Resident would
only send him a few heavy guns and mortars, and
Major Napier, of the Engineers, to direct the opera-
tions of the siege. He knew the worth of such a man
in such a conjuncture, and every year that has since
passed has made him prouder of the youthful forecast
■which he then evinced.

EDWAKDES AT MOOLTAIT.

The Bahwulpore troops were sent, the junction was 1348.

formed, and the forces marched down upon Mooltan.
Placing himself at the head of a considerable body of
men, the rebel chief went out to give them battle, but
was beaten by Edwardes, aided by Van Cortlandt, a
European officer in Sikh employ, who has since done
good service to the British Government, and Edward
Lake, a gallant yoTing officer of Bengal Engineers,
directing the Bahwulpore column, who has abun-
dantly fulfilled, on the same theatre of action, the
high promise of his youth. But much as irregular
levies, so led, might do in the open field, they were
powerless against the walls of Mooltan. Again, there-
fore, Edwardes urged upon the Resident the ex-
pediency of strengthening his hands, especially in re-
spect of the ordnance branches of the service. Only
send a siege train, some Sappers and Miners, with
Robert Napier to direct the siege, and — this time, for
the difficulties of the work had assumed larger pro-
portions in his eyes — a few regular regiments, under
a young brigadier, and we shall “close,” he said,
“Moolraj’s accounts in a fortnight, and obviate the
necessity of assembling fifty thousand men in October.”

In the early part of July this requisition was re-
ceived at Lahore. The interval which had elapsed,
since the disastrous tidings of the rebellion of Moobaj
had reached the Residency, had not been an unevent-
ful one at the capital. Early in May, discovery Avas
made of an attempt to corrupt the fidelity of our
British Sepoys. The first intimation of the plot was
received from some troopers of the 7th Irregular
Cavalry, who communicated the circumstance to their
commanding officer. The principal conspirators were
one Kan Singh, an unemployed general of the Sikh
army, and Gxmga Ram, the confidential Vakeel of the

3Q THE ADMESISTEATION OF LORD; DALHOUSIE.

ists, Maliaranee. These men, and two others, were seized,
tried, and convipted. The two chief conspirators
were publicly hanged, and their less guilty associates
transported. That they were instruments of the
Maharanee was sufficiently proved. The conspirators
acknowledged that she was the prime instigator of the
treacherous attempt, and her letters were found in
their possession. With this knowledge, it could no
longer be a question with the Resident as to what
course it behoved him to adopt. The mother of the
Maharajah and the widow of Runjeet Singh could no
longer be suffered to dwell among the Sikhs. She had
already been removed from Lahore to Sheikopoor.
It now became necessary to remove her. fi'om.the
Punjab. Accordingly, certain accredited agents of
the Lahore Durbar, accompanied by two British,
officers, Captain Lumsden and Lieutenant Hodson,
were despatched to Sheikopoor, with a mandkte
under the seal of the Maharajah, directing her re-
moval from that place. Without offering any resist-
ance, or expressing any dissatisfection, she placed her-
self under the charge of the deputation ; and, when
it became clear to her that she was on her way to the
British frontier, she desired — ^not improbably with
that blended irony and bravado which she so well
knew how to employ — ^that her thanks might be con-
veyed to the Resident for removing her to the Com-
pany’s dominions, out of the reach of the enemies,
who would destroy her. With a considerable retinue
of female attendants, she was conveyed to Ferozepore,
and eventually to Benares, where she was placed under-
the charge of Major George Macgregor, an Artillery
officer of high personal character and great diplomatic
experience, who had well sustained in the Punjab the
briUiant reputation which he had earned at Jellalabad

THE RISING OF THE^ NATION. SI ;

. Such was the apparent growth visible at the British 1348;
Residency, recognised in our State-papers, of those
three months in the Punjab. But in" the hands of a
Sikh historian these incidents w;ould form but a
small part of the national annals, for all over the.
country the great chiefs were actively maturing the
plan of their emancipation, calling upon all true
Sikhs, in the name of the great Founder of their
Faith, to exterminate the Christian usurpers, and
even those nearest to the throne were among the
arch-promoters of the movement. The daughter- of
Chuttur Singh and the sister of Shere Singh was,
the betrothed "wife of the Maharajah; but these
Sirdax’s, though anxious to veil their designs until
the whole country was ripe for a simultaneous rising,
were intriguing and plotting for our ovoi^hrow. The
former was in the Hazareh, where his fidelity had
been for some time suspected by James Abbott-r-
another officer of the- Bengal Ax^tillery, friend and
comrade of Henry Lawrence, who .had been set-
tling that part of the country — one of those ifien
whose, lot in life it is never to be believed, never
to be appreciated, never to be rewarded ; of the
true salt of the earth, but- of an unrecognised
savour ; chivalrous, heroic, but somehow or other
never thoroughly emerging from the shade. He was
not one to estimate highly the force of the maxim
that “ speech is silver, silence is gold and his sus-
picions are said not to have been acceptable at Lahore.

But though it may be good to suspect, it is doubtless
good, also, not to appear to suspect. And if Currie,
in that conjxmcture, had betrayed a want of confi-
dence in the Sikh Sirdars, he would have precipitated
the collision which it was sound policy to retajrti. So,
may have .been his genuine cmyiedom, he

THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

stiU appeared to trust the chiefs of the Regency ; and
Shere Singh, with a strong body of Sikh troops, was
sent down to Mooltan. It was wise to maintain, as
long as possible, the semblance of the authority of
the Sikh Durbar — wise to keep up the show of sup-
pressing a rebellion by the hand of the native Go-
vernment. To send down that undeveloped traitor to
the great centre of revolt may have been a hazardous
experiment, but it was hazardous also to keep him
where he was; and the master-passion of the Sikh
soldiery for plunder might have kept his battalions
nominally on the side of authority, until they had
glutted themselves with the spoils of Mooltan, and pre-
parations had, meanwhile, been made in the British
provinces for the commencement of military operations
on a scale befitting the occasion. But the repeated re-
quisitions of Edwardes for British aid at last wrought
upon the Resident, and Currie determined to send a
force to Mooltan, with a siege-train for the reduction
of the fortress. In General Samson Whish, of the
Artillery, under whose command the force was de-
spatched, there was not literally what Edwardes had
asked for — “ a young brigadier” — ^but there was a
general officer of unwonted youthfulness of aspect
and activity of body, who could sit a horse well,
could ride any distance at a stretch, and was gene-
rally esteemed to be one of the best artillery officers
in the service. This forward movement was not
countenanced in high places. The Commander-in-
Chief shook his head. The Governor-General shook
his head. But the Resident had ordered it, and it
could not be countennanded, without encouraoinsr a
belief that there was a want of unanimity in Bntish
councils.

So the besieging force marched upon Mooltan, ard

THE DEFECTIOK OF SHERE SINGS. S3-

arrived before tbe city in Mgb bealtb and excellent 1843i,
spirits. On tbe 5tb of September, in tbe name of the
Mabarajab and Queen Victoria, tbe British General
summoned tbe garrison to surrender. No answer was
returned to tbe summons, and tbe siege commenced.

But on tbe when our guns were witbin breach-
ing distance of tbe walls of the town, Whish, to bis
bitter mortification, was compelled to abandon tbe
siege. Tbe Sikh force under Sbere Singh had gone
over to tbe enemy.

This event bad long been matter of anxious specu-
lation in tbe British camp, and now took no one by
surprise. It was known that tbe hearts of tbe soldiery
were with Moolraj ; but there was something of a
more doubtful character in tbe conduct of the Rajah
himself, who had on more than one occasion testified
his zeal and loyalty by voluntary acts of service in
our cause. In his own camp, tbe Khalsa troops said
contemptuously, that he was a Mussulman. With
Edwardes he was outwardly on the best possible
terms ; spoke freely of the conduct of his father,
Chuttur Singh ; declared that he washed his hands
of all the old man’s rebellious projects ; and candidly
avowed his mistrust of the Sikh troops. But in all
this he was playing a part. He had written to his-
brother to say that he intended to go over to the
enemy on that very 14th of September, and he kept
his word to the letter. On the morning of that day,
the whole Durbar force sought entrance into the
city. Doubtful of the real nature of the movement,
Moolraj at first refused them admittance; but soon
satisfied of their intentions, he opened his gates ; the
long dreaded and fatal junction was. effected; and
the British General was under the mortifying neces*.
aty of raising the siege of Mooltan,

THE ADMINIST5ATI0N OF LOKD DAIHOUSIE.

'* 48 . The whole truth was now visible before the world.
It was impossible any longer to maintain the fiction
of a local rebellion, to pretend that the Lahore Go-
vernment, assisted by British troops, was endeavour-
ing to coerce a refractory subject. The very heads
of that Government were in open hostility to the
British, raising the standard of nationality in the
name of the Maharajah. It was obvious that the
war now about to be waged, was between the British
and the Sikhs. Some hope was at one time to be
drawn from the fact of long-standing feuds among
the difFerent Sikh families. Then there was the not
unreasonable conviction that the Mahomedan popu-
lation of the Punjab might easily be kept in a state
of eninity with the Sikhs. But these assurances soon
melted away. Hostile families and hostile religions
were content to unite for the nonce against the
Feringhees; and the Commander-in-Chief, as the
cold weather approached, was gratified by finding
that there had been no premature birth of victory —
that the work was yet to be done — and that an
army of twenty thousand men, under his personal
conamand, was required to take the field.

And from that time Mooltan ceased to be the focus
of rebeUiori and the head-quarters of the war. In
the Hazareh country Chuttur Singh had thrown off
all vestments of disguise, and plunged boldly into the
troubled -svaters that lay before. him. The thoughts
of Shere Singh soon began to turn towards that
quarter — ^indeed, such had been his desire from.the
first — and before the second week of October had
passed away, he had marched out of Mooltan to
join his father. The whole country was now rising
against us. Having used the name of the Maharajah,
the Sikh leaders were eager to possess themselves of

MOVEMENTS OF THE GOVEENOE-GENEEAL;

fclie person of tlie boy-Eang, and but for tbe vigilance iSiS.
of tbe Resident tbey would have achieved an object
which would have added a new element of strength
to the national cause. Duleep Singh remained in our
hands virtually a prisoner at Lahore.

AH this time the Governor-General was at Cal-
cutta, watching from a distance the progress of
events, and betraying no eagerness to seize a favour-
able opportunity for the conquest of the Punjab. In-
deed, it has been imputed to him, as a grave political
error, that he did not at an earlier period make due
preparation for the inevitable war. But, it would seem
that in the summer of 1848, his desire was to recog-
nise as long as possible only internal rebellion in the
Sikh country — to see, not the rising of a nation
against a foreign intruder, but the revolt of a few un-
loyal chiefs against their own lawful sovereign. But
with the first breath of the cool season there came a
truer conception of the crisis, and Lord Dalhousie pre-
pared himself for the conflict. “ I have wished for
peace,” he said, at a public entertainment, early in
October ; “ I have longed for it ; I have striven for
it But if the enemies of India determine to have
war, war they shall have, and on my word they shall
have it with a vengeance.” A few days afterwards
he turned his back upon Calcutta, and set his face
towards the north-west. All the energies of his
mind were then given to the prosecution of the, war.

The British army destined for the re-conquest of
the Punjab assembled at Ferozepore, and crossed the
Sutlej in different detachments. On the 13th of
November the head-quarters reached Lahore. At
that time it could hardly be said that British influ-
ence extended a rood beyond the Residency walls,
in aU parts of the country the Sikhs had, risen against

I) 2

36 THE ADMINISTEATIOH OF LOKD DALHOUSIE.

1848. the great reproach of the English Occupation. In
many outlying places, on the confines of civilisa-
tion, our En^ish officers were holding out, in thf.
face of every conceivable difficulty and danger, with
constancy and resolution most chivalrous, most
heroic, hoping only to maintain, by their own per-
■ sonal gallantry, the character of the nation they re-
presented. There was, indeed, nothing more to be
done. We had ceased to be regarded as allies. Sc>
eager and so general was the desire to expel the
intruding Feringhee, that the followers of Goviml
sank for a time all feelings of national and religion! i
animosity against their Afghan neighbours, and in>
voked Mahomedan aid from the regions beyond the
passes of the Khyber.

On the 21st of November, I^rd Gough joined the
army on the left bank of the'Siitlej,^) A veteran com-
mander, who within the space'of a feAV years had
fought more battles in different parts of the world
fthan were crowded into the lives of most living war-
riors — a general whose uniform good fortune had
glossed over his want of forecast and science, and
whose repeated successes had silenced criticism — be
was now about to engage in military operations greater
than those of his antecedent campaigns, with, perhaps,
even less knowledge of the country and less considera-
tion of the probable contingencies of the war. But all
men had confidence in him. India had been won by
a series of military mistakes that would have dis-
graced an ensign before the examination period, and,
perhaps, would not have been won at aU if we had
infused into our operations more of the pedantry of
military science. He was a soldier, and all who fought
undcir him honoured his grey hairs, and loved hiin
for his manly bearing, his fine frank character, and

EAMNUGGUE.

even for the impetuosity which so often entangled 1848 .
his legions in difficulties, and enhanced the cost of
the victories he gained.

The arrival of the Conimander-in-Chief was the
signal for the immediate commencement of hostilities.

The force then under his personal command consisted
of upwards of twenty thousand men, with nearly a
hundred pieces of artillery, and Gough was in no
temper for delay. On the day after his arrival in
camp was fought the battle of Eamnuggur, the first
of those disastrous successes which have given so
gloomy a character to the campaign. The enemy
had a strong masked battery on the other side of the
river, and very cleverly contrived to draw the British
troops into an ambuscade. The operations of the
Commander-in-Chief, commenced with the object of
driving' a party of the rebels, who were on his side of
the Chenab, across the river, had the effect of bring-
ing his cava-lry and artillery within reach of these con-
cealed guns; and twenty-eight pieces of ordnance
opened upon our advancing columns. The cavalry
were ordered to move forward to the attack as soon
as an opportunity presented itself. They found an
opportunity, and charged a large body of the enemy,
the Sikh batteries pouring in their deadly showers all
the while. Many fell under the fire of the guns, many
under the sabre-cuts of the Sikh swordsmen, many
under the withering fire of a Ijody of inatchlockmen,
who, taking advantage of the nature of the ground,
harassed our horsemen sorely. Nothing was gained
by our “ victory but we lost many brave and some
good soldiers ; and our troops returned to camp
weary and dispirited, asking what end they had ac-
complished, and sighing over the 'ost.

Some days afterwards a' force- -istder General Thack-

THE ADMINISTIIATION OF LOED DALHOUSIE.

1848. well was sent out to cross the river, but being scantily
supplied with information, and grievously hampered
by instructions, it succeeded only in losing a few men
and killing several of the enemy. No great object
was gained, but great opportunities were sacrificed.
The Commander-in-Chief pompously declared that
“ it had pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe to the
British arms the most successful issue to the extensive
combinations rendered necessary for the purpose of
efiectmg the passage of the Chenab, the defeat and
dispersion of the Sikh force under the insurgent
Eajah Shere Singh and the numerous Sikh Sirdars
who had the temerity to set at defiance the British
power.” These “ events, so fraught with importance,”
were to “ tend to most mpmentous results.” The re-
sults were, that the field of battle was shifted from
the banks of the Chenab to the banks of the Jhelum.
The enemy, who might have been taken in rear, and
whose batteries might have been seized, if Thackwell
had been free to carry out the most obvious tactics,
escaped with aU their guns; and on the 13th of
January bore bloody witness to the little they had
suffered, by fighting one of the greatest and most
sanguinary battles in the whole chronicle of Indian
warfare.

By this time Henry Lawrence had returned to the
Punjab. The news of the outbreak at Mooltan had
reached him in England, whilst stiU in broken health,
and had raised within him an incontroUable desire,
at any hazard, to retimn to his post. He had won
his spurs, and he was eager to prove that he was
worthy of them, even at the risk of life itself. It has
been said that he ought not to have quitted the Pun-
jab, and that if he had been at Lahore in the spring
df 1848, the war would not then have been preci-

EETUBN OF HENBT LAWRENCE.

pitated by tbe rebellion of Moolraj, for “ any one but I8i8.
a civilian would have foreseen that to send Vans
Agnew and Anderson down to Mooltan at tbe time
and in tbe manner selected was almost sure to pro-
duce an ebulbtion of feeling and violence.” But. if Calcutta
Lawrence bad not gone to England at that time, be
would, in all human probabibty, bave died; and
tbougb be might not have sent the same men to
Mooltan, be would have sent a mission there for tbe
same purpose. “ I meant to have sent Arthur Cocks,”
was his remark to the present writer, when the dis-
astrous news reached us in London. He saw at once
that the Mooltanee revolt was but the prelude to a
great national outbreak, and though his friends
trembled for his safety and counselled delay, his
strong sense of duty to the State overruled all per-
sonal considerations, and so he carried back his shat-
tered frame and his inexhaustible energies to the
scene of the coming conflict. Leaving London at
the end of October, he reached Bombay early in De-
cember, and pushing up the Indus with characteristic
rapidity of movement, joined the camp of General
Whish, before the walls of Mooltan, two days after
the great festival of Christmas.

On the second day of the new year, Whish, rein- iSi9.
forced from Bombay, carried the city of Mooltan.

Long and obstinate had been the resistance of the be-
sieged ; and now that our storming columns entered
the breach, the garrison stiU, at the bayonet’s point,
showed the stuff of which they were made. Frightful
had been the carnage during the siege. Heaps of
mangled bodies about the battered town bore ghastly
witness to the terrible effects of the British ordnance.

But many yet stood to be shot down or bayoneted in
the streets; and the work of the besieging force was

THE AHMINISTEATION OF LORD DAIHODSIE.

1S49. yet far from its close. Moolraj was in tlie citadel with
some thousands of his best fighting-men; and the
fort guns were plied as vigorously as before the cap-
ture of the town. The strength of this formidable
fortress seemed to laugh our breaching batteries to
scorn. Mining operations were, therefore, com-
menced ; hut carried on, as they were, beneath a
constant discharge from our mortars, it seemed little
likely that the enemy would wait to test the skill of
the engineers. The terrible shelling to which the
fortress was exposed dismayed the pent-up garrison.
JBy the 21st of January they were reduced to the last
extremity. Moolraj vainly endeavoured to rally his
followers. Their spirit was broken. There was no-
thing left for them but to make a desperate sally and
eut their way through the besiegers, or to surren-
der at once. The nobler alternative was rejected.
Asking only for his own life and the honour of his
women, Moolraj tendered on that day his submission
to the British General. Whish refused to guarantee
the first, but promised to protect the women ; and
bn the following morning the garrison marched out
of 1 Mooltan, and Dewan Moolraj threw himself upon
the mercy of the British Government.

Meanwhile, Henry Lawrence, having witnessed the
fall of the city of Mooltan, hastened upwards to Feroze-
pore, conveyed to Lord Dalhousie the first welcome
tidings of that event, took counsel with the Governor-
General, made himself master of the great man’s
views, then hurried onto Lahore, communicated with
the Resident, and on the same evening pushed on to
the camp of theCommander-in-Ohief, which he reached
.on the night of the 10th of January. He was there
in no recognised official position, for Currie’s tenure of
(Office did not expire until the.beginning of the ensuing

CHILLIANWALLAH.

'aonth ; but he "was ready for any kind of service, and
he placed himself at Lord Gough’s disposal, as an
honorary aide-de-camp, or any other subordinate
officer, in the fine army which was now stretching out
before him.

Three days after Lawrence’s arrival in camp the
battle of Chillianwallah was fought. The time had
arrived when a far less impetuous general than Gough
might have deemed it incumbent on him to force the
Sikh army into a general action. It is true that the
final reduction of the fortress of Mooltan would have
liberated a large portion of Whish’s column, and
greatly have added to the strength of the British
army on the banks of the Jhelum. But the Sikh
Sirdars, on this very account, were eager to begin the
battle, and would not have suffered us to wait for our
reinforcements. Gough already had a noble force
under him, equal to any service. It was panting for
action. There had been a lull of more than a
month’s duration, and all through India there was a
feeling of impatience at the protracted delay. Gough,
therefore, prepared for action. Ascertaining the
nature of the country occupied by the Sikh army,
and the position of their troops, he planned his attack
upon sound tactical principles, and fully instructed
his generals in the several parts which they were
called upon to play. On the afternoon of the 13th
everything was ready, and the battle was to have been
commenced early on the following morning. But,
unwilling to give the British General the long hours
of the morrow’s light, from daybreak to sunset, that
he wanted, to fight his battle according to approved
principles of modern warfare, the Sikh leaders, when
the day was far spent, determined, if possible, to
•aggravate hijm into an immediate encounter. They

1819 .

42' THE ADSimiSTRiTlOS OF LOEH, DAIHODSIE.

1S49. knew tlieir man. So they advanced a few guns, and
sent some round-shot booming in the direction of the
British camp. The bait took. The warm Hibernian
temperament of the British leader could not brook the
insult. He moved up his heavy guns, responded with
some chance shots at the invisible enemy, and then,
there being little of the day left for his operations,
gave the command for his line to advance.

The story of what followed has been often told, and
it is not so gratifying a page of history that I need
care to repeat it. Night closed upon the fearful
carnage of that terrible engagement, and both armies
claimed the victory. What it cost us is written in
the Gazette. Never was an olBScial bulletin received
in England with a wilder outcry of pain and passion.
The past services, the intrepid personal courage, the
open honest character, the many noble qualities of
the veteran Commander were forgotten in that burst
of popular indignation, and hundreds of English
families turned from the angry past to the fearful
future, and trembled as they thought that the crown-
ing action with that .formidable enemy had yet to be
fought by a General so rash, so hea^trong, and so
incompetent. ■

In the high places of Government there was uni-
versal discomposure, and the greatest military au-
thority in the country shook his head with an
ominous gesture of reproach. Then arose a wild
cry for Napier. The conqueror of the Beloochees was
sent out in hot haste to India to repair the mischief
that had been done by Gough, and to finish off the
war with the Sikhs in a proper workmanlike manner.
But the hottest haste could not wholly annihilat e time
and space, and though this sudden supersession of the
brave old chieij who had fought so many battles and

THE AFGHAN ALLIANCE.

WOT) SO many victories, might shaine his grey hairs, it
could not bring the war to a more rapid or a more
honourable close. The carnage of ChillianwaHah
shook for a time the confidence of the army in their
chief, but it did not shake the courage of our fighting-
men, or destroy their inherent capacity for conquest.
It was a lesson, too, that must have scored itself into
the very heart of the British chief, and made him a
sadder man and a wiser commander. The errors of
the 13th of January were to be atoned for by a
victory which any leader might contemplate with
pride, and any nation with gratitude. Scarcely had
his appointed successor turned his back upon England
when Gough fought another great battle, which
neither Napier, nor Wellington himself, who talked of
going in his place, could have surpassed in vigour
of execution or completeness of effect.

Anxiously was intelligence of the surrender of
Moolraj looked for in the camp of the Commander-
in-Chief. Since that disastrous action at Chillian-
wallah, Gough had been entrenching his position, and
waiting reinforcements from Mooltan. The surrender
of that fortress set free some twelve thousand men, ■
and Whish, with unlooked-for rapidity, marched to
the banks of the Jhelum to swell the ranks of the
grand army. A great crisis was now approaching.
Thrice had the British and Sikh forces met each other
on the banks of those classical rivers which had seen
the triumphs of the Macedonian — ^thrice had they
met each other only to leave the issue of the contest
yet undecided. A great batde was now about to be
fought — one differing from all that had yet been
fought since the Sikhs first crossed the Sutlej, for a
strange but not unlooked-for spectacle was about to
present itself — Sikhs and Afghans, those old heredi^

.1848

THE ADMINISTEATION OF LOED DALHOUSIE.

1849. tary enemies, fighting side by side against a common
■foe. The Sikh Sirdars, I have said, had been in-
triguing to secure the assistance of the Ameer of
Cabool. For some time there appeared little like-
lihood that old Dost Mahomed, -vsrhose experience
ought to have brought -wisdom -with it, -would lend
himself to a cause which, in spite of temporary suc-
cesses, was so sure to prove hopeless in the end. But
neither years, nor experience, nor adversity had
taught him to profit by the lessons he had learned.
The desire of repossessing himself of Peshawur was
the madness of a life. The bait was thrown out to
, him, and he could not resist it. He came through
the Khyhur with an Afghan force, marched upon the
Indus, and threatened Attock, which fell at his ap-
proach; despatched one of his sons to the camp of
Shere Singh, and sent a body of Douranee troops to
fight against his old Fmnghee enemy, who for years
had been the arbiter of his fate. How deplorable an
act of senile fatuity it was, the events of the 21st of
February must have deeply impressed upon his mind.
On that day was fought an action — was gained a
-victory, in the emphatic words of the Governor-
General, “ memorable- alike from the greatness of the
occasion, and from the briUiaht and decisive issue of
the encounter. For the first time, Sikh and Afghan
were banded together against the British power. It
was an occasion which demanded the putting forth of
all the means at our disposal, and so conspicuous a
manifestation of the superiority of our arms as should
appal each enemy, and dissolve at once their compact
by fatal proof of its futility. The completeness of the
-victory which has been won equals the highest hopes
entertained.” And there was ho official exaggeration
in this; none of the vain boasting of the interested

GOOJRAT.

despatcli-writer. At Goojrat, to wMcli place tlie
enemy had unexpectedly moved their camp, Lord
Gough fought a great battle as a great battle ought
to be fought, coolly and deliberately, by a British
Commander. Every arm of his fine force was brought
effectively into play ; each in its proper place, each
supporting and assisting the others, and each covering
itself with glory. From the early dawn of that clear
bright morning the cannonade commenced. Never
had the Bengal Artillery made a nobler display;
never had it been worked with more terrible effect.
Resolute and well handled as was the Sikh army, it
could not stand up against the steady fire of our guns.
By noon the enemy were retreating in terrible dis-
order, “their position carried, their guns, ammuni-
tion, camp equipage, and baggage captured, their
flying masses driven before their victorious pursuers,
from mid-day receiving most severe punishment in
their flight.” And all this was accomplished with
but little loss of life on the side of the victorious
ftrmy. It pleased the Almighty that the bloody
lessons of the Chenab and the Jhelum should not
be thrown away.

A division under Sir Walter Gilbert, an oflSLcer of
great personal activity, unequalled in the saddle, was
ordered to follow up the success of Goojrat, and to
drive the Afghans fi'om the Punjab. And weU did he
justify the choice of his chief. By a series of rapid
marches, scarcely excelled by any recorded in history,
he convinced the enemy of the hopelessness of all
further resistance. The Barukzye force fled before
our advancing columns, and secured the passage of
the Khybur before British influence could avail to
close it against the fugitives. By the Sikhs them-
jblves the game had clearly been played out' The

1849 ,

46 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

184». Khalsa was now quite broken. 'There was nothing
left for Shere Singh and his associates hut to trust
themselves to the clemency of the British Govern-
ment. On the 5th of March, the Rajah sent the
British prisoners safely into Gilbert’s camp. On the
Sth, he appeared in person to make arrangements for
the surrender of his followers ; and on the 14th, the
remnant of the Sikh army, some sixteen thousand
men, including thirteen Sirdars of note, laid down
their arms at the feet of the British General.

The military chief had now done his work, and it
was time for the appearance of the Civil Governor on
the scene. Lord Dalhousie was on the spot prepared
for immediate action. Already was his portfolio
weighty with a proclamation which was to determine
the fate of the empire of Runjeet Singh. I do not
suppose that a moment’s doubt ever obscured the
clear, unsullied surface of the Governor-General’s re-
solution. It was a case which suggested no misgivings
and prompted no hesitation. The Sikhs had staked
everything on the issue of the war, and they had lost
it in fair fight. They had repaid by acts of treachery
and violence the forbearance and moderation of the
British Government. We had tried to spare them ;
but they would not be spared. First one course,
then another, had been adopted in the hope that
eventually a strong native Government might be esta-
blished, able to control its ovm subjects,, and willing
to live on terms of friendly alliance with its neigh-
bours. Our policy had from the first been wholly
unaggressive. There was no taint of avarice or ambi-
tion in it. But it had not been appreciated ; it had
not been successful. The whole system had collapsed.
And now that again a British ruler was called upon
to -solve the great problem of the Future of the

THE FATE OF DULEEP SINGH.

Punjab, he felt that there was no longer any middle 1849.'
course open to him ; that there was but one measure
applicable to the crisis that had arisen; and that
measure was the annexation of the country to the
territories of the British Empire. So a Proclamation
was issued announcing that the kingdom founded by
Runjeet Singh had passed under British rule ; and
the wisdom and righteousness of the edict few men
are disposed to question.

The last Sikh Durbar was held at Lahore. The 2®*
fiat of the British conqueror was read aloud, in the, '
presence of the young Maharajah, to the remnant of
the chiefs who had not committed themselves by open
rebellion ; and a paper of Terms was then produced
by which the British Government bound themselves
to pay the annual sum of forty or fifty thousand
pounds to the boy-Prince and his family,* so long .as
he should remain faithful to his new master and
abide by his sovereign will; It was a happy change
for Duleep Singh, born as he was for the Sikh
shambles; for in his new state, he had abundant
wealth, perfect safety, freedom from all care, and the
insurpassable blessing of a saving faith. Becoming,
in his twelfth year, the ward of the Governor-General,
he was placed under the immediate tutelage of an
Assistant-Surgeon of the Bengal Army,t who was so
fit a man for the office, so worthy of the confidence
reposed in him, that the little Sikh Prince, under his
wise ministrations, developed into a Christian gentle-
man, an English courtier, and a Scotch laird. And
it may be recorded here, before I pass on to the his-
tory of British rule in the Punjab, that the mother

^ TJiis is not the loose diction of less than four, or more than
doubt The agreement, was, that the lakhs of rupees. .

British Government should pay not • f Afterwards Sir John Login.. ‘

48 - THF, ADIONISmTION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

IW.

1863.

1849.

Administra-
tion of the
Punjab,

of Duieep Siogli, flie widow of old Runjeet, that rest-
less, turbulent Chund Kowr, whose intrigues did so
nauch to precipitate the fall of the Sikh Empire, after
a series of strange romantic vicissitudes, prematurely
old, weU-nigh blind, broken and subdued in spirit,
found a resting-place at last under the roof of her
son, in a quiet corner of an English castle, and died
in a London suburb.

The Proclamation which turned the Punjab into
a British province was not the only weighty State-
paper in the portfolio of the Governor-General.
Whilst Gough had been preparing to strike the last
crushing blow at the military power of the Khalsa,
Dalhousie, with Henry Elliot at his elbow, never
doubting the issue, was mapping out the scheme ol
administration under which it seemed good to him t('
govern the country which was about to pass under
our rule. The crowning victory of Goojrat found
everything devised and prepared to the minutest
detail. The men were ready; the measures were
defined. There was no hurry, therefore — ^no con-
fusion. Every one fell into his appointed place, and
knew what he had to do. And never had any
Governor better reason to place unbounded confi-
dence in the men whom he employed ; never was any
Governor more worthily served.

The country which had thus fallen by right of
conquest into our hands embraced an area of fift}'
thousand square miles, and contained a popula-
tion of four mUlions of inhabitants. These inhabi-
tants were Hindoos, Mahomedans, and Sikhs. The
last were a new people — ^a sect of reformed Hindoos,
of a purer faith than the followers of the Brahminical
superstitions; It was a Sikh Government that we

THE PUNJAB AND ITS PEOPLE.

had supplanted; and mainly a Sikh army that -we
had conquered ; hut it must not be supposed that
Punjabee is synonimous with Sikh, that the country
was peopled from one end to the other with the fol-
lowers of Nanuk and Govind, or that they were the
ancient dwellers on the banks of those five legendary
rivers. The cities of the Punjab were Mahomedan
cities; cities founded, perhaps, ere Mahomed arose,
enlarged and beautified by the followers of the Ghuz-
nivite. The monuments were mainly Mahomedan
monuments, with traces here and there of Grecian
occupation . and Bactrian rule. Before Ddhi had
risen into the imperial city of the Moguls, Lahore
had been the home of Indian kings. But the rise of
the Sikh power was cotemporaneous with our own,
and the apostles of the new Keformation had not
numbered among their converts more than a section
of the people. And as was the population, so was
the country itself, of a varied character. Tracts of
rich cultivated lands, the corn-field and the rose-
garden, alternated with the scorched plain and the
sandy desert. Here, as far as the eye could reach, a
dreary level of jungle and brushwood ; there, a mag-
nificent panorama, bounded by the blue ranges and
the snowy peaks of the Himalayah. And ever the
great rivers as they flowed suggested to the cultured
mind of the English scholar thoughts of that grand
old traditionary , age, when Porus fought, and Alex-
ander conquered, and Megasthenes wrote, and the
home-sick Argive, on the banks of those fabulous
streams, sighed for the pleasant country he had left,
and rebelled against his leader and his fate. It was
a country full of interest and full of opportunity;
and it grew at once into the pet province of the

184 %

50 THE ADMINISTEATION OF LOED DALHOUSIE.

•& 49 . Britisli Viceroy, tlie youngest and the most hopeful
of all.

That a country so situated, so circumstanced, and
so peopled, should not be brought under the system
of administration prevailing in our long-settled pro-
vinces was a mere matter of course. But Dalhousie
had no disposition to rush into the opposite extreme
of a purely military government. He had at no time
of his career any class prejudices, and he did not
see why soldiers and civilians should not work har-
moniously together in the administrative agency of
the province. He had faith in both ; each in his ap-
pointed place ; for there was rough soldiers’ work to
be done, and much also that needed the calm judg-
ment and the tutored eye of the experienced civilian.
So he called in the aid of a mixed Staff of civil and
military officers, and at the head of this he placed a
Board of Administration, presided over by Henry
Lawrence.*

The Board was to consist of three members, with
secretaries to do the pen-work of the administration,
and to scatter its instructions among the subordinate
functionaries of the province. It was not a control-
ling authority which a man of Dalhousie’s stamp was
likely to affect ; scarcely, indeed, could he be sup-
posed to tolerate it. But he could not set aside the
great claims of Henry Lawrence, nor, indeed, could
he safely dispense with his services in such a con-
juncture ; yet he was unwilling to trust to that honest,
pure-minded, soldier-statesman the sole direction of
affairs. The fact is that, with a refinement of the
justice and moderation which were such conspicuous
features of Henry’s character,, he dissented from the

• Sir Frederick Carrie had by thia time resumed his seat in the Su-
preme Council of India.

JOHN LATOENCE.

policy of annexation. He thouglit that another effort 1849 .
might have been made to save the Sikh Empire from
destruction. Out of this difficulty arose the project of
the Board. It was natural that Dalhousie should have
desired to associate with one thus minded some other
statesman whose views were more in harmony with
his own. A Board of two is, under no circumstances,
a practicable institution ; so a Triumvirate was esta-
blished. But sentence of death was written down
against it from the very hour of its birth.

The second seat at the Board was given to the
President’s brother, John Lawrence. An officer of
the Company’s Civil Service, he had achieved a high
reputation as an administrator ; as one of those hard-
working, energetic, conscientious servants of the State,
who live ever with the harness on their back, to whom
labour is at once a duty and a delight, who’ do every-
thing in a large unstinting way, the Ironsides of the
Public Service. He had taken, in the earlier stages
of his career, an active part in the Revenue Settlement
of the North-Western Provinces, and had subsequently
been appointed Magistrate of the great imperial city
of Delhi, with its crowded, turbulent population, and
its constant under-current of hostile intrigue. In this
post, winning the confidence of men of aU classes and
all creeds, Lord Hardinge found him when, in 1845,
he journeyed upwards to join the army of the Sutlej.

There was an openness, a frankness about him that
pleased the old solffier, and a large-hearted zeal and
courage which proclaimed him a man to be employed
in a post of more than common difficulty, beyond the
circle of ordinary routine. So, after the campaign on
the Sutlej, when the JuUindur Doab was taken in part
payment of the charges of the war, John Lawrence
was appointed to superintend the administration of

E 2

THE ADMUHSTMTION OF LOED DALHOUSIE.

1849. that tract of country ; and on more than one occasion,
during the enforced absence of Henry from Lahore, in
the first two years of the British Protectorate, he had
occupied his brother’s seat at the capital, and done his
work with unvaried success. That there were great
characteristic differences between the two Lawrences
will be clearly indicated as I proceed ; but in unsullied
honesty and intrepid manliness, they were the counter-
parts of each other. Both were equally without a
stain.

The third member of the Lahore Board of Admini-
stration was Mr. Charles Grenville Mansel, also a cove-
nanted civilian, who had earned a high reputation as
one of the ablest financiers in India, and who supplied
much of the knowledge and experience which his col-
leagues most lacked. His honesty was of as fine a
temper as theirs, but he was a man rather of thought
than of action, and wanted the constitutional robust-
ness of his associates in office. Perhaps his very pecu-
liarities, rendering him, as it were, the complement of
the other two, especially marked him out as the third
of that remarkable triumvirate. Regarded as a whole,
with reference to the time and circumstances of its
creation, the Board could not have been better con-
stituted. It did honour to the sagacity of Lord
Dalhousie, and fuUy justified the choice of agents
he had made.

The system was one of divided labour and common
responsibility. On Henry Lawrence devolved what
was technically called the “political” work of the
Government. The disarming of the country, the
negotiations with the chiefs, the organisation of the
new Punjabee regiments, the arrangements for the
education of the young Maharajah, who had now be-
come the ward of the British Government, were among

THE PUNJABEE OFEICIALS.

the immediate duties to which he personally devoted
himself; the chief care of John Lawrence was the
civil administration, especially the settlement of the
Land Revenue; whilst Mansel superintended the
general judicial management of the province ; each,
however, aiding the others with his advice, and having
a potential voice in the general Council. Under these
chief officers were a number of subordinate adminis-
trators of different ranks, drawn partly from the civil
and partly from the military service of the Company.
The province was divided into seven divisions, and to
each of these divisions'a Commissioner was appointed.
Under each of these Commissioners were certain
Deputy-Commissioners, varying in number according
to the amount of business to be done ; whilst under
them again were Assistant-Commissioners and Extra
Assistants, drawn from the tmcovenanted servants of
Government — ^Europeans, Indo-Britons, or natives of
pure descent.

The officers selected for the principal posts under
the Lahore Board of Administration were the very
flower of the Indian services. Dalhousie had thrown
his whole heart into the work which lay before him.
Resolved that it should not be marred by the in-
efficiency of his agents, he looked about him for men
of mark and likelihood, men in the vigour of their
years, men of good performance for the higher posts,
and sturdy, eager-spirited youths of good promise for
the lower. It mattered not to him whether the good
stuff were draped in civil black or military red. Far
above all petty prejudices of that kind, the Governor-
General swept up his men with an eye only to the
work that was in them, and sent them forth to do his
bidding. Some, had already graduated in Punjabee
administration under the Protectorate ; others crossed

1849.

THE ADMESISTKATION OF LORD DAIHOUSIE.

I8i9. the Sutlej for the first time with honours taken under
Thomason and his predecessors in the North-West
Provinces. And among them were such men as George
Edmonstone, Donald Macleod, and Robert Mont-
gomery from the one service ; Frederick Mackeson
and George Macgregor from the other ; such men,
besides those already named,* as Richard Temple, Ed-
ward Thornton, Neville Chamberlain, George Barnes,
Lewin Bowring, Philip Goldney, and Charles Saun-
ders; soldiers and civilians working side by side,
without a feeling of class jealousy, in the great work
of reconstructing the administration of the Punjab
and carrying out the executive details ; whilst at the
head of the department of Public Works was Robert
Napier, in whom the soldier and the man of science
met together to make one of the finest Engineer
ofoLcers in the world.

They found much to do, but littie to undo. The
Government of Runjeet Singh had been of a rude,
simple, elementary character; out of aU rule; in-
formal; unconstitutional; unprincipled; one great
despotism and a number of petty despotisms ; accord-
ing to our English notions, reeking with the most
“ frightful injustice.” But somehow or other it had
answered the purpose. The injustice was intelligible
injustice, for it was simply that of the strong will
and the strong hand crushed down in turn by one
stni stronger. Petty governors, revenue-farmers, or
kardars might oppress the people and defraud the
State, but they knew that, sopner or later, a day of
reckoning would come when their accounts would be
audited by the process of compulsory disgorgement,

p. l2. I have liOTe named Others there were, appointed at a
only those tomgaished during the later period, equally entitled to ho-
earherpenodofourPunjahee career, nourahle mention.

THE PUNJAB SYSTEM.

or in some parts of the country settled in the noose of 1849.
the proconsular gibhet. No niceties of conscience and
no intricacies of law opposed an obstacle to these
summary adjustments. During the existence of that
great fiction the Council of Regency, we had begun to
systematise and to complicate affairs ; and as we had
found — at least, as far as we understood the matter —
a clear field for our experiments, we now, on assuming
undisguisedly the administration of the country, had
a certain basis of our own to operate upon, and little
or nothing to clear away.

The system of administration now introduced into
the Punjab, formal and precise as it may have been
when compared with the rude simplicity of the old
Sikh Government, was loose and irregular in com-
parison with the strict procedure of the Regulation
Provinces. The administrators, whether soldiers or
civilians, were limited to the discharge of no par-
ticular departmental functions. They were judges,
revenue-collectors, thief-catchers, diplomatists,, con-
servancy ofS.cers, and sometimes recruiting serjeants
and chaplains, aU in one. Men trained in such a school
as this, and under such masters as the Lawrence^
became equal to any fortune, and in no conjuncture,
however critical, were ever likely to fail. There
was hardly one among them who did not throw his
whole heart into his work; who ever thought of ease,
or leisure, or any personal enjoyment beyond that
which comes from an honest sense of duty done.

They lived among the people of the country, their
tents open to all the points of the compass;* and

^ Sir John Malcolm used to say here is a pleasant illustrative proof,
that the only way to govern the from a paper written by one of them:
people of a newly-acquired country — “ For eight months in the year the
was by means of char durwaseh kalak, tent is the proper home of him who
or four doors open. That the Pun- loves his duties and his people. Thus
jabee officials well understood this, he comes to know and be known of

THE ADMINISTEATION OF LOUD DALHOUSIE.

1849. won by tbeir personal bearing the confidence and the
admiration of all who came within their reach.

And so, far sooner than even sanguine men ven-
tured to predict, the Punjab began to settle down
under its nevr rulers. Even the old Khalsa fighting-
men accepted their position, and with a manly resig-
nation looking cheerfully at the inevitable, confessed
that they had been beaten in fair fight, and submitted
themselves to the English conqueror. Some were
enlisted into the new Punjabee Irregular Eegiments,
which were raised for the internal defence of the pro-
vince. Others betook themselves, with the pensions
or gratuities which were bestowed upon them, to their
fields, and merged themselves into the agricultural
population. There was no fear of any resurrection
of the old national cause. For whilst the people were
forced to surrender all their weapons of war — ^their
guns, their muskets, their bayonets, their sabres, their
spears — the whole province was bristling with British
arms. An immense military force was maintained in
the Punjab. It was a happy circumstance that, as
the Indus had now become our boundary and the
country of the Sikhs our frontier province, it was
necessary for purposes of external defence, after the
apparent settling down of our newly-acquired terri-
tories, stm to keep our regular troops, European and
native, at a strength more than sulOBLcient to render
utterly harmless aU the turbulent elements of Pun-
jabee society. Had the British army been withdrawn

them ; thus personal influence and and almonds, according to the fashion
local knowledge give him a power of their country, and are never so
not to he won by bribes or upheld happy as when allowed to seat tiiem-
by bayonets. The notables of the selves on the carpet and talk over
neighbourhood meet their friend and old times and new events— the pre-
mier on his morning march ; grey- mise of the harvest and the last
beards throng round his unguarded orders of the rv\Qx^,^^--CalcuUa Re-
door with uresents of the best fruits vol. xxxiii,

of the land, or a little sugar, spices.

THE SIKH SIEDAES.

from the Punjab, as at a later period it was from 1849.
Oude, it is bard to say what might not have resulted
from our confidence and incaution.

On the acquisition of a new country and the ex-
tinction of an old dynasty, it has commonly happened
that the chief sufferers by the revolution have been
found among the aristocracy of the land. The great
masses of the people have been considerately, indeed
generously treated, but the upper classes have been
commonly prostrated by the annexing hand, and have
never recovered from the blow. This may be partly
attributed to what is so often described as the “in-
evitable tendency” of such a change from a bad to a
good government. It has been assumed that the men
whom we have found in the enjoyment of all the
privileges of wealth and social position, have risen to
this eminence by spoliation and fraud, and maintained
it by cruelty and oppression. And it is true that the
antecedents of many of them would not bear a very
jealous scrutiny. Now, so far as the substitution of a
strong and pure for a weak and corrupt government
must necessarily have checked the prosperous career
of those who were living on illicit gains and tyran-
nous exactions, it was, doubtless, the inevitable ten-
dency of the change to injure, if not to ruin them, as
the leaf must perish when the stem dies. But it must
be admitted that for some years past the idea of a
native aristocracy had been an abomination in the eyes
of English statesmen in India ; that we had desired
to see nothing between the Sircar, or Government,
and the great masses of the people ; and that, how-
ever little we might have designed it, we had done
some great wrongs to men, whose misfortune, rather
than whose fault, it was that they were the growth of
a corrupt system. There was at the bottom of this a

THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

strong desire for the welfare of the people — an eager
and a generous longing to protect the weak against
the tyranny of the strong; but benevolence, like
ambition, sometimes overleaps itself, and falls prostrate
on the other side, and out of our very love of justice
come sometimes unjust deeds.

To the great chiefs of the Punjab the annexation
of the country to the British Empire was a source of
sore disquietude.* Mercy to the vanquished in the
hour of victory was not one of the weaknesses they
had been accustomed to contemplate. They had
played for a great stake, and they had lost. They
had brought their losses on themselves. They had
invited by their own acts the conflict which had
ruined them. In no one instance had our policy
been aggressive. We had not coveted the possession
of the Punjab. We had not invited either the
first or the second great, conflict between the British
and the Sikh armies. A brave nation fighting for
its independence is one of the noblest spectacles
of humanity ; and the leaders of such a movement
have just claim to sympathy and respect. But these
men had risen against us whilst they pretended to
be our friends. They had soiled their patriotism
by treachery, and forfeited their honour by false-
hood and deceit. StiU, to a man of large mind and
catholic spirit like Henry Lawrence, it could not
seem right to judge these Sirdars as he would the

* TMs was admitted in the first thusiasm, cannot return to the ordi-
Punjab Report, the followings pas- nary level of society and the common
s^e of which may be advantageously occupations of life without feeling
quoted A great revolution can- some discontent and some enmity
not happen without injuring some against their powerful but humane
classes. When a State faus, its conquerors. Bat it is probable that
nobility and its snpporters mnst to the mass of the people will advance
some extent suffer with it ; a domi- in material prosperity and in moral
nant, sect, and party once moved by elevation under the influence of
political ambition and religious en- British rule.”

JAGHEEES AND TENSIONS.

flower of European cHvalry. So lie dealt gently
with, their offences ; and when he came to consider
their position under the new Government, he re-
spected their fallen fortunes, and laid a lighter hand
upon their tenures than higher authority was alto-
gether willing to sanction. That a large portion of
the revenue would be alienated by grants to military
chiefs and to priestly sinecurists was certain; not
less certain did it appear that the money might be
better bestowed. StiU, it might be politic, even in
a financial aspect, to tolerate for a time abuses of
this kind, as not the most expensive means of re-
conciling the influential classes to our rule. Thus
argued Henry Lawrence. So these privileged classes
received from him, in many instances, though not aU
that he wished to give, more perhaps than they had
dared to expect. Existing incumbents were generally
respected; aiid the privileges enjoyed by one gene-
ration were to be only partially resumed in the next.

Thus, by a well-apportioned mixture of vigour and
clemency, the submission, if not the acquiescence, of
the more dangerous classes was secured; and our
administrators were left, undisturbed by the fear of
internal revolt, to prosecute then* ameliorative mea-
sures. It would be beyond the scope of such a nar-
rative as this to write in detail of the. operations
which were carried out, under the Lahore Board, at
once to render British rule a blessing to the people,
and the possession of the Punjab an element of
strength and security to the British Empire. These
great victories of peace are reserved for others to
record. That the measures were excellent, that the
men were even better than the measures, that the
administration of the Punjab was a great fact, at
which Englishmen pointed with pride and on which

1849.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DAIHOUSIE.

1349. foreigners dwelt with., commendation, is freely ad-
mitted, even by those who are not wont to see much
that is good in the achievements of the British
Government in India. Under the fostering care of
the Governor-General, who traversed the country
from one end to the other, and saw everything with
his own eyes, the “ Punjab system ” became the
fashion, and men came to speak and to write of it as
though it were a great experiment in government
originated by Lord Dalhousie. But it was not a new
system. It had been tried long years before, with
marked success, and was still in force in other parts
of India, though it had never been carried out on so
large a scale, or in so fine a country, or been the
darling of a viceroy. The only novelty in the con-
struction of the ad m inistration was the Lahore Board,
and that was abandoned as a failure.

I do not say that it was a failure ; but it was so
regarded by Lord Dalhousie, who, in 1853, remorse-
lessly signed its death-warrant. A delicate operation,
indeed, was the breaking up of the Punjabee Cabinet
and the erection of an autocracy in its place. It was
the will of the Governor-General that the chief direc-
tion of affairs should be consigned to the hands, not
of many, but of one. And when the rumour of this
resolution went abroad, there was scarcely a house, or
a bungalow, or a single-poled tent occupied by an
English oflBLcer, in which the future of the Punjab —
the question of the Lawrences — ^was not eagerly dis-
cussed. "Was Henry or was John Lawrence to re-
main supreme director of affairs ? So much was to
be said in favour of the great qualities of each
brother, that it was difficult to arrive at any antici-
patory solution of the question. But it was in the

ABOLITION OF THE BOABD.

cliaracter of tlxe Governor-General himself that the 1853 .
key to the difficulty should have been sought. Lord
Hardinge vould have chosen Henry Lawrence. Lord
Dalhousie chose John. No surprise is now expressed
that it was so ; for, in these days, the character and
policy of Dalhousie are read by the broad light of
history. No regret is now felt that it was so ; for,
when the great hurricane of which I am about to
write swept over India, each of those two great
brothers was, by God’s providence, found in his
right place. But there were many at the time who
grieved that the name of Henry Lawrence, who
had been for so many years associated with all their
thoughts of British influence in the Sikh country, and
who had paved the way to all our after successes,
was to be expunged from the list of Punjabee admi-
nistrators. It was said that he S3anpathised overmuch
with the fallen state of Sikhdom, and sacrificed the
revenue to an idea ; that he was too eager to provide
for those who suffered by our usurpation ; whflst Dal-
housie, deeming that the balance-sheet would be re-
garded as the great test and touchstone of success, was
eager to make the Punjab pay. John Lawrence, it
was. said, better understood the art of raising a revenue.
He^was w illin g, in his good brotherly heart, to with-
draw from the scene in favour of Henry ; but the Go-
vernor-General needed his services. So he was ap-
pointed Chief-Commissioner of the Punjab, and a
new theatre was found for the exercise of Henry
Lawrence’s more chivalrous benevolence among the
ancient states of Rajpootana.

Outwardly, authoritatively, and not untruthfully,
the explanation was, that the work of the soldier-states-
man was done, that the transition-period in which

THE AHMIOTSTEATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

IMS. Henry Lawrence’s services were so especially needed
had passed ; that the business of internal administra-
tion was principally such as comes within the range
of the civil officer’s duties ; and that a civilian with
large experience, especially in revenue matters, was
needed to direct all the numerous details of the Exe-
cutive Government. Dalhousie never liked the Board.
It was not a description of administrative agency
likely to find favour in his eyes ; and it is not impos-
sible that he placed, with some reluctance, at the
head of it a man who had not approved the original
policy of annexation. But he could not have read
Henry Lawrence’s character so badly as to believe
for a moment that, on that account, the policy once
accomplished, he could have been less eager for its
success, or less zealous in working it out. There was
the indication, however, of a fundamental difference of
opinion, which as time advanced became more and
more apparent, for Henry’s generous treatment of his
fallen enemies came from that very source of enlarged
sympathy which rendered the policy of annexation dis-
tasteful to him. It was natural, therefore, that the
Governor-General, who had resolved to rid hioiself
of the Board on the first fitting opportunity, should
have selected as the agent of his pet policy, the
administrator of his pet province, the civilian who
concurred with, rather than the soldier who dis-
sented from, his views. The fitting opportunity
came at last, for there was a redistribution of some
of the higher political offices;* and Dalhousie then

* The Hyderabad Hesidency -was bered) that either he or his brother
about to be vacated. It was aa should be sent to Hyderabad. Lord
"ofSoe that had been held by Sir Dalhousie, however, sent General
Charles Metcalfe and other eminent Low to the Court of the Nizam, and
men. I believe that Henry Law- ^ve Henry Lawrence the scarcely
rence suggested (for the days of the less honourable appointment of Go-
Board had been for some time nuni- vemor-General’s agent in Eajpootana.

HENRY AND JOHN LAWRENCE.

swept away tlie obnoxious institution, and placed the
administration of the Punjab in the hands of a single
man.

Henry Lawrence bowed to the decision, but was not
reconciled to it. He betook himself to his new duties
a sadder and a wiser man. He did not slacken in
good service to the State ; but he never again had the
same zest for his work. Believing that he had been
unfairly and ungratefully treated, he had no longer
his old confidence in his master, and as the Dalhousie
policy developed itself, under the ripening influence
of time, he saw more clearly that he was not one to
find favour in the eyes of the Governor-General.
Much that he had before but dimly seen and partly
understood now became fuUy revealed to him in the
clear light of day. Once, and once only, there was
any official conflict ; but Henry Lawrence saw much
that whilst he deplored he could not avert, and he
sighed to think that his principles were out of date
and his politics out of fashion.

In the mean while, John Lawrence reigned in the
Punjab. - The capacity for administration, which he
had evinced as a Member of the Board, had now free
scope for exercise, and was soon fully developed. His
name became great throughout the land, and he de-
served the praise that was lavished upon him. Right
or wrong he did all in accordance with the faith
that was in him. He was a fitting agent of Dalhousie’s
policy, only because he believed in that policy. And
happily the greater part of his work lay along the
straight road of undebatable beneficence. How he
worked, day after day, early and late, and how aH
men worked imder-him, is a history now well known.
He was emphatically a man without a weakness.
Strong himself, bone and muscle, head and hear^ of

THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1853. adamantine strength, that would neither bend not
break, he expected others to be equally strong.
They sighed, perhaps they inwardly protested, but
they knew that the work he exacted from them he
gave, in his own person, unstintingly to the State ;
and they could not regard as a hai’d task-master one
who tasked himself hardest of all. From moral in-
firmities of all kinds he appeared to be equally free.
He did not even seem to be ambitious. Men said that
he had no sentiment, no romance. We so often judge
our neighbours wrongly in this, that I hesitate to
adopt the opinion ; but there was an intense reality
about him such as I have never seen equalled. He
seemed to be continually toiling onwards, upwards,
as if life were not meant for repose, with the grand
princely motto, “ I serve,'' inscribed in characters of
light on his forehead. He served God as unceasingly
as he served the State ; and set before all his country-
men in the Punjab the true pattern of a Christian
gentleman.

And it was not thrown away. The Christian cha-
racter of British administration in the Punjab has
ever been one of its most distinguishing features. It
is not merely that great humanising measures were
pushed forward with an alacrity most honourable to
a Christian nation — ^that the moral elevation of the
people was continually in the thoughts of our ad-
ministrators ; but that in their own personal cha-
racters they sought to illustrate the rehgion which
they professed. Wherever two or three were gathered
together, the voice of praise and prayer went up from
the white man’s tent. It had been so during the Pro-
tectorate, when, in the wildest regions and in the
most stirring times, men like the Lawrences, ReyneU
Taylor,; and Herbert Edwardes, never forgot the

THE BUEMESE.

Cbvktiaa Sabbath.* And now that peace and order isss,
reigned over the country, Christianity asserted itself
more demonstratively, and Christian churches rose at
our bidding. There was little or none, too, of that
great scandal which had made our names a hissing
and a reproach in Afghanistan. Our English officers,
for the most part, lived pure lives in that heathen
land ; and private immorality under the administra-
tion of John Lawrence grew into a grave public
offence.

And so the Punjab administration flourished under Conquest of
the Chief-Commissioner and his assistants ;f and the
active mind of Lord Dalhousie was enabled to direct
itself to new objects. Already, far down on the
south-eastern boundary of our empire — at the point
farthest removed of aU from the great country whose
destinies we have been considering — ^the seeds of war
had been sown broad-cast. Ever since 1826, when
the first contest with Ava had been brought to a close
by the surrender to the English of certain tracts of
country in which no Englishman could live, our rela-
tions with the Burmese had been on an unsatisfactory
footing. In truth, they were altogether a very un-
satisfactory people ; arrogant and pretentious, blind
to reason, and by no means anxious to manifest their
appreciation of the nice courtesies of diplomatic in-

^ Many will remember that de- was sufBciently a Christian to be
lightful little story, so pleasantly admitted to swell the two or three
told in Edwardes’s Year on the into three or four. ^

Punjab frontier,” of Reynell Taylor’s f On the abolition of the Board,
invitation to prayer on a Sunday Mr. Montgomery, who had succeeded
morning in P^Druary, 184i8, and of Mr. Mansel as third member, became
the question whether the half-caste Judicial Commissioner, and Mr. Mac-
colonel, “John Holmes,” who had leod was appointed Financial Com-
“ always attended prayers at Pesha- missioner.
wur ” in George^ Lawrence’s house.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

18 , 49 . tercourse. To find just cause, according to Europea®
notions, for chastising these people would at any tun^
have been easy. But their insolence did us very little
harm. We could tolerate, without loss of credit or of
prestige, the discourtesies of a barbarian Government
on the outskirts of civilisation. An insult on the
banks of the Irrawaddy was very different from an
insult on the banks of the Jumna. The Princes and
chiefs of India knew nothing and cared nothing about
our doings far out beyond the black waters of the
Bay of Bengal. But at last these discourtesies cul-
minated in an outrage which Lord Dalhousie thought
it became the British Government to resent. Whether,
under more discreet management, redress might have
been obtained and war averted, it is now of little
moment to inquire. A sea-captain was appointed to
conduct our diplomacy at Rangoon, and he con-
ducted it successfully to a rupture. A war ensued, to
which the future historian of India may devote a not
very inviting chapter, but its details have nothing to
do with the story of this book. English arras were
triumphant, and the province of Pegu lay at our
feet. Dalhousie annexed it to the British Empire,
“ in order that the Government of India might hold
from the Burmese State both adequate compensation
for past injury, and the best security against future
danger.” Thus did the British Empire, which had so
recently been extended to the north-west, stretch itself
out to the south-east ; and the white man sat himself
down on the banks of the Irrawaddy as he had seated
himself on the banks of the Indus. There were not
wanting those who predicted that the whole of
Burmah would soon become British territory, and
that then the “uncontrollable principle,” by reference
to which a great English statesman justified the

THE ANNEXATION OF PEGU.

seizure of Sindh, would send the English conqueror 1849.
to grope his way through the Shan States and Siam
to Cochin-China. But these apprehensions were
groundless. The administrator began his work in
Pegu, as he had begun his work in the Punjab, and
there was no looking beyond the frontier ; but, on the
other hand, a desire to avoid border disputes, or, if
they could not be avoided, to treat them as matters
of light account, inevitable and soon to be forgotten.

There was a military officer, admirably fitted for the
work, who had served long and successfully, as a
civil administrator, in Arracan ; who knew the Bur-
mese language and the Burmese people, and had a
great name along the eastern coast. Those isolated
re^ons beyond the Bay of Bengal are the grave of all
catholic fame. Whilst the name of Lawrence was in
all men’s mouths, Phayre was pursuing the even
tenor of his way, content with a merely local reputa-
tion. But the first, and as I write the only commis-
sioner of Pegu, is fairly entitled to a place in the very
foremost rank of those English administrators who
have striven to make our rule a blessing to the people
of India, and have not failed in the attempt.

In India the native mind readily pervades vast
distances, and takes little account of space that the
foot can travel. But it is bewildered and confused by
the thought of the black water.” The unknown is
the illimitable. On the continent of India, therefore,
neither our war-successes nor our peace-successes in
the Burmese country stirred the heart of Indian
society. In the lines of the Sepoy or the shops of the
money-changer they were not matters of eager inte-
rest and voluble discourse. We might have sacked
the cities of Ava and Amarapoora, and caused their
sovereign lord to be trodden to death by one of his

F 2

THE ADMKISTEATIOJf OE LOED DALHOTJSIB.

■white elephants •without exciting half the interest
engendered by a petty outbreak in Central India, or
the capture of a small fort in Bundelkund. The
Princes and chiefs of the great continent of Hindostan
kne'w little and cared less about a potentate, ho-wever
magnificent in his O'wn donainions, -who neither 'wor-
shipped their gods nor spoke their language, and
who was cut off from their brotherhood by the in-
tervention of the great dark sea. We gained no
honour, and we lost no confidence, by the annexation
of this outlying province ; but it opened to our Native
Soldiery a new field of service, and unfortunately it
•was bevond the seas.

LATSIL

G 9

chapter IL

IHE ADMINISTRATION OP LORD DALHOUSIE— ADOPTION— THE RIGHT OP
LAPSE”— SATTAEAH — NAGPORE— JIIANSI— KEROWLEE — ^IHE CARNATIC —

TANJORE— THE CASE OP THE PEISHWAH — ^DUNDOO PHNT, NANA SAHIB —
SUMBIIULPORE.

So, three years after his ariival ia India, Dalhonsie 184S.1856,
had brought to a close two great military campaigns,
and had captured two great provinces. He had then
done with foreign wars ; his after-career was one of
peaceful invasion. Ere long there was a word which
came to be more dreaded than that of Conquest. The
native mind is readily convinced by the inexorable
logic of the sword. There is no appeal from such
arbitration. To be invaded and to be conquered is a
state of things appreciable by the inhabitant of India.

It is his “kismut;” his fate; God’s will. One stronger
than he cometh and taketh all that he hath. There
are, however, manifest compensations. His religion is
not invaded ; his institutions are not violated. Life
is short, and the weak man, patient and philosophical,
is strong to endure and mighty to wait. But Lapse
is a dreadful and an appalling word ; for it pursues
the victim beyond the grave. Its significance in his
eyes is nothing short of eternal condemnation

THE ADMINISTRATION OE lORD DALHOTJSIE.

1848 - 1856 . » The son,” says the great Hindoo lawgiver, “ de-

livers his father from the hell called Put.” There
are, he tells us, different kinds of sons ; there is the
son begotten ; the son given ; the son by adoption ;
and other filial varieties. It is the duty of the son to
perform the funeral obsequies of the father. If they
be not performed, it is believed that there is no re-
surrection to eternal bliss. The right of adoption is,
therefore, one of the most cherished doctrines of
HLudooism. In a country where polygamy is the
rule, it might be supposed that the necessity of .adopt-
ing another man’s offepring, for the sahe of these cere-
monial ministrations, or for the continuance of an
ancestral name, would be one of rare occurrence. But
all theory on the subject is belied by the fact that the
Princes and chiefs of India more frequently find them-
selves, at the close of their liyes, without the solace of
male offspring than with it. The Zenana is not an
institution calculated to lengthen out a direct line of
Princes. The alternative of adoption is one, therefore,
to which there is frequent resort ; it is a source of
unspeakable comfort in life and in death ; and politi-
cally it is as dear to the heart of a nation as it is
personally to the individual it affects.

It is with the question of Adoption only iu its
political aspects that I have to do in this place. There
is a private and personal, as there is a public and
political, side to it. No power on earth beyond a
man’s own will can prevent him from adopting a son,
or can render that adoption illegal if it be legally per-
formed. But to adopt a son as a successor to private
property is one thing, to adopt an heir to titular
dignities and territorial sovereignty is another. "With-
out the consent of the Paramount State no adoption

THE SATTAEAH LAPSE.

of the latter kind can be valid. Whether in this case 1818-1S56
of a titular Prince or a possessor of territorial rights,
dependent upon the will of the Government, Hindoo-
ism is satisfied by the private adoption and the penal-
ties of the sonless state averted, is a question for the
pundits to determine ; but no titular chief thinks the
adoption complete unless he can thereby transmit his
name, his ^gnities, his rights and privileges to his
successor, and it can in no wise be said that the son
takes the place of his adoptive father if he does not
inherit the most cherished parts of that father’s pos-
sessions.

But whether the reli^ous element does or does not
rightly enter into the question of political adoptions.

1848.

Sattarah.

nothing is more certain than that the right, in this

larger political sense, was ever dearly prized by the
Hindoos, and was not alienated from them by the
Lords-Paramount who had preceded us. The im-

perial recognition was required, and it was commonly
paid for by a heavy “nuzzurana,” or succession-duty,
but in this the Mogul rulers were tolerant. It was

reserved for the British to substitute for the right of
adoption what was called “ the right of lapse,” and in
default of male heirs of the body lawfully begotten to

absorb native principalities into the great amalgam
of our British possessions. “ In 1849,” wrote Lord
Dalhousie, in his elaborate farewell minute, “the
principality of Sattarah was included in the British
dominions by right of lapse, the Bajah having died
without male heir.” The Princes of Sattarah were the

descendants of Sevajie, the founder and the head of
the Mahratta Empire. Their power and their glory
had alike departed. But they were still great ip
tradition, and were looked up to with respect by the

THE ADMINISTEATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1848. Mahrattas of Western India. In April, 1848, the last
Rajah died;* and a question arose as to whether, no
direct male heir of the body having been left by the
deceased, a son by adoption, or a collateral member
of the family, should be permitted to succeed him, or
whether the rights and titles of the principality should
be declared to be extinct. Sir George Clerk was then
Governor of Bombay. He looked at the Treaty of
1819 ; saw that “ the British Government agreed to
cede in perpetual sovereignty to the Rajah of Sattarah,
his heirs and successors,” the territories which he had
held, and at once declared himself in favour of the
continuance of the native Raj. The members of his
Council looked upon the question as purely one of
expediency, and considered it the duty of the British
Government to decide it in the manner most advan-
tageous to ourselves. But the Governor refused to
admit any secondary considerations, saying, “ If it be
inconsistent with justice to refuse confirmation to the
act of adoption, it is useless to inquire whether it is
better for the interests of the people or of the empire
at large to govern the Sattarah territories through the
medium of a native Rajah, or by means of our own
administration.” The trumpet of that statesman was
not likely to give an uncertain sound.

When this question first arose, the Governor-Gene-
ral was in his novitiate. But new as he was to the
consideration of such subjects, he does not appear to
have faltered or hesitated. The opinions, the practi-
cal expression of which came subsequently to be called

* Appa Saliib. He Lad sue- creditable. It is worthy of remark,
ceeded his brother, who ^ in 1839 that Sir Robert Grant, being satisfied
was deposed, and, as I think, very of the Rajah’s guilt, proposed to
rightly, on account of a series of punish him in the manner least
intrigues against the British Go- likely to be advantageous to our-
vernment, equally foolish and dis- selves.

THE POLICY OF ANNEXATION.

the “ policy of annexation,” were formed at the very 1848.
outset of his career, and rigidly maintained to its
close. Eight months after his first assumption of the
Government of India, he placed on record a confes-
sion of faith elicited by this agitation of the Sattarah
question. Subsequent events of far greater magni-
tude dwarfed that question in the public mind, and
later utterances of the great minute-writer caused
this first manifesto to be comparatively forgotten;
but a peculiar interest must ever be associated with
this earliest exposition of Dalhousie’s political creed,
and therefore I give it in the words of the statesman
himself: “The Government,” he wrote on the 30th
August, 1848, “ is bound in duty, as well as policy,
to act on every such occasion with the purest in-
tegrity, and in the most scrupulous observance of
good faith. Where even a shadow of doubt can be
shown, the claim should at once be abandoned. But
where the right to territory by lapse is clear, the
Government is bound to take that which is justly
and legally its due, and to extend to that territory
the benefits of our sovereignty, present and prospec-
tive. In like manner, while I would not seek to lay
down any inflexible rule with respect to adoption, I
hold that, on all occasions, where heirs natural shall
fail, the territory should be made to lapse, and adop-
tion should not be permitted, excepting in those cases
in which some strong political reason may render it
expedient to depart from this general rule. There
may be conflict of opinion as to the advantage or the
propriety of extending our already vast possessions
beyond their present limits. No man can more sin-
cerely deprecate than I do any extension of the
frontiers of our territory which can be avoided, or
which may not become indispensably necessary from

74 : THE ADMINISTRATIOU OE LOED DALHOUSIE.

1849. considerations of our own safety, and of the mainte-
nance of the tranquillity of our provinces. But I
cannot conceive it possible for any one to dispute the
policy of taking advantage of every just opportunity
which presents itself for consolidating the territories
that already belong to us, by taking possession of
States that may lapse in the midst of them ; for thus
getting rid of these petty intervening principalities,
which may be made a means of annoyance, but which
can never, I venture to think, be a source of strength,
for adding to the resources of the public Treasury,
and for extending the uniform application of our sys-
tem of government to those whose best interests, we
sincerely believe, will be promoted thereby. Such i?
the general principle that, in our humble opinion,
ought to guide the conduct of the British Govern-
ment in its disposal of independent States, where
there has been a total failure of heirs whatsoever, or
where permission is asked to continue by adoption a
succession which fails in the natural line.”

The Court of Directors of the East India Company
confirmed the decision of the Governor-General, and
Sattarah was annexed. There were men, however, in
the Direction who protested against the measure as an
act of imrighteous usurpation. “ We are called upon,”
said Mr. Tucker, ever an opponent of wrong, “to
consider and decide upon a claim of right, and I have
always felt that our best policy is that which most
closdy adheres to the dictates of justice.” “We
ought not to forget,” said Mr. Shepherd, who, on
great questions of this kind, was commonly to be
found side by side with his veteran friend, contending
for the righte of the native Princes of India, “that
during the. rise and progre® of our empire in the
East, our Governments have continued to announce

DEATH OF THE BONSLAH. IS

and proclaim to the people of India that not only 1849-
should all their rights and privileges which existed
under preceding Governments be preserved and main-
tained, but that their laws, habits, customs, and pre-
judices should be respected.”* And what right more
cherished, what custom more honoured, than the right
and custom of adoption ? But the majority of the
Court of Directors supported the views of the Governor-
General. They had heard the voice of the charmer.

And from that time the policy of Dalhousie became
the policy of LeadenhaU-street, and the “ Right of
Lapse” was formally acknowledged.

And it was not, for reasons which I have already i 853 .

given, likely long to remain a dead letter. Soon
another of the great Mahratta chiefs was said to be
dying, and in a few days news came to Calcutta that
he was dead. It was the height of the cold season
of 1853 — a few days before Christmas — ^when the
slow booming of minute guns from the Saluting
Battery of Fort William announced the death of
Ragojee Bonslah, Rajah of Nagpore. At the age of
forty-seven he succumbed to a complication of dis-
orders, of which debaucheiy, cowardice, and obstinacy
were the chief. There have been worse specimens of
royalty, both in Eastern and Western Palaces, than
this poor, worn-out, impotent sot; for although he
was immoderately addicted to brandy and dancing-
girls, he rather liked his people to be happy, and was
not incapable of kindness that caused no trouble to
himself. He had no son to succeed him ; a posthu-
mous son was an impossibility; and he had not
adopted an heir.

It may seem strange and contradictory that if the

* Colonel Olipliant and Mr. Leslie Melville recorded minutes on the
same side.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1853. right of adoption as sanctioned by religion and pre-
scribed by ancestral usage be so dear to tbe people of
India, tbey should ever fail to adopt in default of heirs
of their body. But we know that tbey often do ; and
tbe omission is readily explicable by a reference to tbe
ordinary weaknesses of humanity. We know that
even in this country, with aU tbe bgbts of civilisation
and Christianity to keep us from going astray, thou-
sands of reasoning creatures are restrained from
making their wills by a vague feeling of apprehension
that there is something “unlucky” in such a pro-
cedure ; that death will come the sooner for such a
provision against its inevitable occurrence. What
wonder, then, that in a country which is the very
hotbed of superstition, men should he restrained by
a kindred feeling from providing against the event of
their dissolution ? But in this case there is not onlv

•f

the hope of life, but the hope of offspring, to cause the
postponement of the anticipatory ceremony. Men,
under the most discouraging circumstances, stUl cliug
to the belief that by some favourable reaction of
nature they may, even when stricken in years, beget
an heir to their titles and possessions. In this sense,
too, adoption is held to be unlucky, because it is
irreligious. It is like a surrender of all hope, and a
betrayal of want of faith in the power and goodness
of the Almighty. No man expects to beget a son
after he has adopted one.

In the case, too, of this Mahratta Prince, there were
special reasons why he should have abstained from
making such a provision for the continuance of his
House. According to the law and usage of his
country, an adoption by his widow would have been
as valid as an adoption by himself. It was natural,
therefore, and assuredly it was in accordance with

THE NAGPOEE SUCCE5SIOS.

the aharacLer of the man, who was gormandising and
dallying with the hand of death upon him, that he
should have left the ceremony to be performed by
others. Whether it was- thus vicariously performed is
not very clearly ascertainable. But it is certain that
the British Resident reported that there had been no
adoption. The Resident was Mr. Mansel, who had
been one of the first members of the Lahore Board of
Administration — a man with a keen sense of justice,
favourable to the maintenance of native dynasties,
and therefore, in those days, held to be crotchety and
unsound. He had several times pressed the Rajah on
the subject of adoption, but had elicited no satisfactory
response. He reported unequivocally that nothing had
been done, and asked for the instructions of the
Supreme Government.

Lord Dalhousie was then absent from Calcutta.
He was making one of his cold-weather tours of in-
spection — seeing with his own eyes the outlying pro-
vince of Pegu, which had fallen by right of conquest
into his hands. The Council, in his absence, hesitated
to act, and all the instructions, therefore, which they
could send were to the effect that the Resident should
provide for the peace of the country, and keep things
quiet until further orders. There was no doubt about
Dalhousie’s decision in such a case. Had the Rajah
adopted a son, there was little likelihood of the
Governor-General’s sanction of the adoption ; but as
he had wilfully failed to perform the ceremony, it ap-
peared to be as clear as noon-day that the great organ
of the Paramount State would pronounce the fatal
sentence of Lapse.

Dalhousie returned to Calcutta, and with cha-
racteristic energy addressed himself to the mastery of
.the whole question. Before the first month of the

1853,

THE ADMINISTKITION OP LOED DALHOUSIE.

Jan. 28, new year had worn to a dose, he attached his signa-
ture to an elaborate minute, in which he exhausted
aU the arguments which could be adduced in favour
of the annexation of the country. Printed at full
length, it would occupy fifty pages of this book. It
was distinguished by infinite research and unrivalled
powers of special pleading. It contended that there
had been no adoption, and that if there had been, it
would be the duty of the British Government to
refuse to recognise it. “ I am well aware,” he said,
*' that the continuance of the Raj of Nagpore under
some Mahratta rule, as an act of grace and favour on
the part of the British Government, would be highly
acceptable to native sovereigns and nobles in India ;
and there are, doubtless, many of high authority who
would advocate the policy on that special ground. I
understand the sentiment and respect it; but re-
membering the responsibility that is upon me, I can-
not bring my judgment to admit that a kind and
generous sentiment should outweigh a just and
prudent policy.”

Among the members of the Supreme Council at
that time was ColondL John Low. An old officer of
the Madras army, who long years before, when the
Peishwah and the Bonslah were in arms against the
British, had sate at the feet of John Malcolm, and
had graduated in diplomacy under him, he had never
forgotten the lessons which he had learnt from his
beloved chief ; he had never ceased to cherish those
“kmd and generous sentiments” cxf which the Go-
vernor-General had spoken in his minute. His whole
life had been spent at the Courts of the native Princes
of India. He had represented British interests long
and faithfully at the profligate Court of Lucknow.
He had contended with the pride, the obstinacy, and

JOHN LOTT.

the superstition of the effete Princes of Rajpootana. 1854.
He had played, and won, a difficult game, with the
bankrupt State of Hyderabad. He knew what were the
vices of Indian Princes and the evils of native misrule.

But he had not so learnt the lesson presented to him
by the spectacle of improvident rulers and profligate
Courts ; of responsibilities ignored and opportunities
wasted ; as to believe it to be either the duty or the
policy of the Paramount Government to seek “just oc-
casions” for converting every misgoverned princi-
pality into a British province. Nor had he, knowing
as he did, better perhaps than any of his countrymen,
the real character of such misgovemment, ever che-
rished the conviction that the inhabitants of every
native State were yearning for the blessings of this
conversion. There were few such States left — Hindoo
or Mahomedan — but what remained from the wreck
of Indian dynasties he believed it to be equally just
and politic to preserve. And entertaining these
opinions, he spoke them out; not arrogantly or
offensively, but with what I believe may be described
as the calm resolution of despair. He knew that he
might speak with the tongue of angels, and yet that
his speech would no more affect the practical result
than a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbaL What
am I against so many? he said; nay, what am I
against one? Who will listen to the utterance of
my ideas when opposed to the “ deliberately-formed
opinion of a statesman like the Marquis of Dalhousle,
in whose well-proved ability and judgment and in-
tegrity of purpose they have entire confidence ?”* But
great statesmen in times past had thought that the
extension of British rule in India was, for our own
sakes, to be arrested rather than accelerated ; that the
♦ Minute cf Colonel John Low. rebnmi'j 10, 1854.

THE ADMINISTEATION OP LOED DALHOUSIE.

1S54. native States wre a source to us of strength rather
than of -weakness, and that it would go ill with us
when there were none left.*

Strong in this belief, Colonel Low recorded two
minutes, protesting against the impolicy and the in-
justice of the }iroposed annexation of Nagpore. He
said that already the annexation of Sattarah had in
many parts of India had a bad m,oral effect ;f that it
had shaken the confidence of the people hi the justice
and good faith of the British Government ; that
people had asked what crime Sattarah had committed
that sentence of political death should thus have been
pronounced against it ; that throughout India acqui-
sition by conquest was well understood, and in many
cases admitted to be right ; that the annexation of the
Punjab, for example, had not been regarded as a
wrong, because the chiefs and people had brought it
on themselves, but that the extinction of a loyal native
State, in default of heirs, was not appreciable in any
part of India, and that the exercise of the alleged
right of lapse would create a common feeling of
uncertainty and distrust at every Durbar in the

* “If Great Britaia shall retain
Jier present powerful position among
the States of Europe, it seems highly
probable that, owing to the infringe-
ment of their treaties on the part of
native Princes and other causes, the
whole of India will, in the course of
time, become one British province;
but many eminent statesmen have
been of opinion that we ought most
carefully to avoid unnecessarily ac-
celerating the arrival of that great
change; and it is within my own
knowledge that the following five
great men were of that number —
namely. Lord Hastings, Sir Thomas
Mnnro, Sir John Malcolm, the Hon.
Monntstuart Elphinstone, and Lord
Metcalfe.” — Minute, Feb. 10, 1854}.
t “When I went to Malwa, in

1850, where I met many old ac-
quaintances, whom I had known
when a very young man, and over
whom I held no authority, I found
these old acquaintances speak out
much more distinctly as to their
opinion of the Sattarah case; so
much so, that I was, on several
occasions, obliged to check them.
It is remarkable tliat every native
who ever spoke to me respecting the
annexation of Sattarah, asked pre-
cisely the same question: ‘What
crime did the late Hajali commit that
his country should be seized by the
Company Thus clearly indicating
their notions, that if any crime had
been committed our act would have
been justifiable, and not otherwise.”
Minute of Colonel Low, Feb. 10, 1854

LOW’S -MINUTES.

eotiiiti'y. He dwelt upon tte levelling efifecrs of
British dominion, and urged that, as in our own
provinces, the upper classes were invariably trodden^
down, it was sound policy to maintain the native-
States, if only as a means of providing an outlet for
the energies of men of good birth and aspiring natures,
who could never rise under British rule. He con-
tended that our system of administration might be far-
better than the native system, but that the people did
not like it better ; they clung to their old institutions,
however defective, and were averse to change, even
though a change for the better. “ In one respect,” he
said, “the natives of India are exactly hke the in-
habitants of all parts of the known world ; they like
their own habits and customs better than those of
foreigners.”

Having thus in unmeasured opposition to the Dal-
housie theory flung down the gauntlet of the old
school at the feet of the Governor- General, Low
ceased from the enunciation of general principles, and
turned to the discussion of the particular case before
him. He contended that the treaty between the
British Government and the late Rajah did not limit
the succession to heirs of his body, and that, there-
fore, there was a clear title to succession in the
Bonslah fanaily by means of a son adopted by
either the Rajah himself or by his eldest widow, in
accordance with law and usage. The conduct, he
said, of the last Prince of Nagpore had not been such
as to alienate this right ; he had been loyal to the
Paramount State, and his countiy had not been mis-
governed ; there had been nothing to call for mili-
wy interference on our part, and little to compel
grave remonstrance and rebuke. For what crime,,
then, was his line to be cut off and the honours of

1654

82 :

THE AHMINISTEATION OF LOED DALHOUSIE.

1854 . Ills House extinguished for ever? To refuse the
right of adoption in such a case would, he alleged,
he entirely contrary to the spirit, if not to the letter,
of the treaty — But how was it to be conceded when
it was not claimed ; when no adoption had been
reported; when it was certain that the Rajah had not
exercised his right, and there had been no tidings of
such a movement on the part of his widow? The
answer to this was, that the Government had been
somewhat in a hurry to extinguish the Raj without
waiting for the appearance of claimants, and that if
they desired to perpetuate it, it was easy to find a
fitting successor.

Of such opinions as these Low expected no sup-
port in the Council-chamber of Calcutta — ^no support
from the authorities at home. It little mattered, in-
deed, what the latter might think, for the annexation
of Nagpore was decreed and to be accomplished with-
out reference to England. As the extinction of the
Sattarah State had been approved by the Company,
in the face of an undisputed adoption asserted at the
right time, Dalhousie rightly judged that there would
be no straining at a gnat in the Riagpore case, where
there had been no adoption at all. Indeed, the
general principles upon which he had based his pro-
ceedings towards Sattarah, in the first year of his
administration, having been accepted in LeadenhaU-
street, there could be no sticMing about so mild an
illustration of them as that afforded by the treatment
of Nagpore. The justification of the policy in the
latter instance is to be found' in the fact that there
was no assertion of an adoption — no claim put for-
ward on behalf of any individual— at the time when
the British Government was called upon to determine

. EXTINCTION or THE BONSLAH lAMiLY. S3

the course to be pursued. It is true that the provi- 1851
sioual Government might, for a time, have been
vested in the eldest widow of the deceased Prince,
adoption by whom would have been recognised by
Hindoo law and Mahratta usage ; but it was not
probable that the British Government would have
thus gone out of its way to bolster up a decayed
Mahratta dynasty, when the head of that Govern-
ment conscientiously believed that it was the duty of
the Paramount State to consolidate its dominions by
recognising only among these effete Princes succession
by direct heirship of the body. Cherishing the faith
which he did, Dalhousie would have gone grievously
wrong, and he would have stood convicted of a
glaring inconsistency, if he had adopted any other
course ; so the kingdom of Berar was declared to
have lapsed to the British Government, and the
family of the Bonslah was extinct.

' The country passed under British rule, and the
people became British subjects, without an audible
.murmur of discontent except from the recesses of the
palace. There the wretched ladies of the royal house-
hold, at first dismayed and paralysed by the blow
which had fallen upon them, began, after a little
space, to bestir themselves and to clamour for their
asserted rights. Liberal pensions had been settled
upon them; but their family was without a head,
and that which might soon have faded into an idea
was rendered a galling and oppressive reality by the
spoliation of the palace, which followed closely upon
the extinction of the Raj. The live stock and dead
stock of the Bonslah were sent to the hanomer. It
must have been a great day for speculative cattle-
dealers at Seetabaldee when the royal elephant^

THE ADMINISTEATIOJr OF LORD DAIHOUSIE.

liorses, and bullocks were sold off at the price of
carrion ;* and a sad day, indeed, in the royal house-
hold, when the venerable Bankha Baee,f with aU the
wisdom and moderation of fourscore well-spent years
upon her, was so sttmg by a sense of the indignity
offered to her, that she threatened to fire the palace if
the furniture were removed. But the furniture was
removed, and the jewels of the Bonslah family,
with a few propitiatory exceptions, were sent to the
Calcutta market. And I have heard it said that
these seizures, these sales, created a worse impression,
not only in Berar, but in the surrounding provinces,
than the seizure of the kingdom itself.|

But even in the midst of their degradation, these
unfortunate ladies clung to the belief that the Bons-
lah family vmuld some day be restored and rehabi-
litated. . The Governor-General had argued that the
widow, knowing that her husband was disinclined to
adopt, had, for like reasons, abstained from adoption.
He admitted the right according to Mahratta usage,
but declared that she was unwilling to exercise it.
He contended, too, that the Bankha Baee, the most
influential of the royal ladies, would naturally be
averse to a measure which would weaken her own
authority in the palace. But his logic halted, and

^ Between five and six Inindred
elephants, camels, horses, and bul-
locks were sold for 1300^, The Ra-
nees sent a protest to the Commis-
sioner, and memorialised the Gover-
nor-General, alleging, in the best
Inglish that the Palace could fur-
nish, that “ on the 4ith instant (Sept.)
the sale of animals, viz. bullocks,
horses, camels, and elephants, com-
menced to sell bjr public auction and
resolution — a pair her hackerj bul-
locks, valued 100 rupees, sold in the
above sale for 6 rupees/^

t The Bankha Baee was a widow
of the deceased Rajah’s grandfather.

J I know that the question of
public and private property, in such
cases, is a very difficult one, and I
shall not attempt to decide it here.
1 only speak of the intense mortifi-
cation which these sales create in the
lamily itself, and the bad impres-
sion which they produce throughout
the country. Rightly or wrongly,
they cast great discredit on our
name ; and the gain of money is not
worth the loss of character.

RETIREMENT OF MR. MANSEt.

his prophecy failed. Both the elder and the younger ^35^
lady were equally eager to perpetuate the regal dig-
nities of their House. Mr. Mansel had suggested a
compromise, in the shape of an arrangement some-
what similar to that which had been made with the
Newabs of the Carnatic, by which the title might be
maintained, and a certain fixed share of the revenue
set apart for its dotation. But he had been severely
censured for his indiscretion, and had left Nagpore
in disgrace. He was, perhaps, the best friend tha3:
the Ranees had in that conjuncture ; but — such is
the value of opinion — ^they accused him, in the
quaint Palace-English of their scribe, of “ endeavour-
ing to gain baronetage and exaltation of rank by re-
porting to the Governor-General that the late Rajah
was destitute of heirs to succeed him, with a view to
his Lordship being pleased to order the annexation
of the territory.”* But there was not a man in the
country less disposed to annex provinces and to
humour Governors than Charles Mansel, and instead
of being exalted in rank, he sacrificed his prospects
to his principles and retired from the Service.

Failing altogether to move the Governor-General,
the Ranees sent agents to London, but vnth no better

^ Lord Dalhousie, in Lis Nagpore imperatively requires, in order to
Minute, says that the Rajah did not render the act of adoption valid, still
adopt, partly because he did not like the known disinclination of the llaiah
to acknowledge his inability to beget to all adoption could not fail to dis-
a son, and partly because he feared incline Ms widow to have recourse to
that the existence of an adopted son adoption after his decease/* It will
might some day be used as a pretext be seen at once that the ordinary
for deposing him. He then observes : logical acumen of the Governor-Ge-
“ The dislike of the late Rajah to the neral failed him in this instance, for
adoption of a successor, was of course the very reasons given by the TOter
known to his widow ; and although himself for the failure of adoption by
the custom of the Mahrattas exempts the Rajah ceased altogether to be
her from that necessity for having operative, ijpso facto^ after his de-
the concurrence of her husband in cease/*
adoption, which general Hindoo law

THE ADMINI8TEATI0N OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1854 result. After the manner of native emissaries from
Indian Courts, they spent large sums of money in
feeing lawyers and printing pamphlets, without
making any impression on LeadenhaU-street or Can-
non-row, and at last, being recalled by their em-
ployers, and having nothing wherewith to pay their
debts, they flung themselves on the generosity of their
opponents, and were sent home by the help of the great
Corporation whom they had reviled. Meanwhile, the
elder widow of the late Rajah died, and a boy, of an-
other branch, whom the Ranees called Janojee Bons-
lah, and in whose person they desired to prolong the
Nagpore dynasty, was formally adopted by the dying
lady. Clutching at any chance, however desperate,
an attempt was made to revive the question of the
political adoption; but the sagacity of the Bankha
Baee must have seen that it was too late, and that
nothing but the private property of the deceased
Princess could be thus secured to the adopted
heir. The country of the Bonslahs had become as
inalienably a part of the Company’s possessions as
the opium go-downs of Patna, or the gun-factory at
Cossipore.

Thus, within a few years of each other, the names
of two of the great rulers of the Mahratta Empire
ceased from off the roll of Indian Princes ; and the
territories of the Company were largely increased.
Great in historical dignity as was the Sattarah Raj,
it was comparatively limited in geographical extent,
whilst the Bonslah, though but a servant in rank,
owned rich and productive lands, yielding in profu-
sion, among other good gifts, the great staple of our
English manufactures.* 'Whilst the annexation of

^ Lord Dalhousie^ put forth the ments which he adduced in favour of
cotton-growing qualities of the Berar the annexation of the territory,
country as one of the many argu-

SATTAEAH AND NAGPOEE,

tlie Punjab and of Pegu extended the British Empire
at its two extreme ends, these Mahratta acquisitions
helped to consolidate it. Some unseemly patches,
breaking the great rose-hued surface, which spoke of
British supremacy in the East, were thus effaced from
the map ; and the Right of Lapse was proclaimed to
the furthermost ends of our Indian dominions.

There is a circumstantial difference between these
two cases, inasmuch as that, in the one, there was an
actual and undisputed adoption by the deceased
Rajah, and in the other there was none ; but as
Dalhousie had frankly stated that he would not have
recognised a Nagpore adoption had there been one, the
two resumptions were governed by the same principle.
And this was not a mere arbitrary assertion of the
power of the strong over the weak, but was based, at
all events, on a plausible substratum of something
that simulated reason and justice. It was contended
that, whenever a native Prince owed his existence
as a sovereign ruler to the British Government, that
Government had the right, on failure of direct heirs,
to resume, at his death, the territories of which it
had originally placed him in possession. The power
that rightly gives, it was argued, may also rightfully
take away. Now, in the cases both of Sattarah and
Nagpore, the Princes, whom the British Government
found in possession of those States, had forfeited their
rights: the one by hidden treachery and rebellion,
the other by open hostility. The one, after full in-
quiry, had been deposed j the other, many years
before, had been driven into the jungle, and had
perished in obscurity a furtive and an outcast.* In

^ It is to be obserired, too, with 'Raj itself bad been resuscitated by
respect to Sattarah, that not only had us in the person of his^ predecessor,
the last Rajah been elevated by the We had found the Rajah prostrate
British Government, but that the and a prisoner, almost,, it may be

1854.

THE ADMINISTBATION OF LOED DALHOUSIE.

1S54. botli cases, therefore, the “ crime” had been com-
mitted which the natives of India are so willing to
recognise as a legitimate reason for the punishment
of the weaker State by the stronger. But the offence
had been condoned, and the sovereignty had been
suffered to survive ; another member of the reigning
family being set up by the Paramount State in place
of the offending Prince. Both Pertaub Singh and
Eagojee Bonslah, as individuals, owed their sove-
reign power to the grace and favour of the British
Government. AU this is historical fact. It may be
admitted, too, that when the crimes of which I have
spoken were committed by the heads of the Sattarah
and Nagpore families, the British Government would
have been justified in imposing conditions upon the
restoration of the Eaj, to the extent of limiting the
succession to heirs of the body, or even in making a
personal treaty with the favoured Prince conferring
no absolute right of sovereignty upon his successors.
But the question is whether, these restrictions not
having been penally imposed, at the time of for-
feiture, the right which then might have been exer-
cised could be justly asserted on the occurrence of a
subsequent vacancy created by death? Lord Dal-
housie thought that it could — that the circumstances
under which the Sattarah and Nagpore Princes had
received their principalities as free gifts from the
British Government conferred certain rights of suze-
rainty on that Government, which otherwise they
could not have properly asserted. But, on the other
hand, it is contended that both principalities, what-

said, at Lis last gasp ; 'we had res- necessarily imparted additional force
cued him from his enemies, and set to it. Tlie same may be said of the
him up in a principality of his own ; Nagpore Eaj. It was “ resuscitated”
a fact which, assuming the validity by the British Government.

.if the argument against adoption.

JEANSI.

soever miglit have been the offences committed years issi.
before by their rulers, had been re-established in their
integrity — ^that no restrictions as to their continuance
had then been imposed — ^that treaties had been con-
cluded containing the usual expressions with respect
to succession — ^in a word, that the condonation had
been complete, and that both the Sattarah and the
Nagpore Houses really possessed all the rights and
privileges which had belonged to them before the
representative of the one compromised himself by a
siUy intrigue, and the head of the other, with equal
fatuity, plunged into hostilities which could result
only in his ruin.

This justificatory plea, based upon the alleged
right of the British Government to resume, in default
of direct heirs, tenures derived from the favour of the
Lord Paramount, was again asserted about the same
time, but with some diversity of application. Com-
paratively insignificant in itself, the case claims espe-
cial attention on account of results to be hereafter
recorded in these pages. In the centre of India,
among the small principalities of Bundelkund, was
the state of Jhansi, held by a Mahratta chief, origi- JliansL
nally a vassal of the Peishwah. But on the transfer
to the British Government of that Prince’s posses-
sions in Bundelkund, the former had resolved “to
declare the territory of Jhansi to be hereditary in the
family of the late Sheo Rao Bhow, and to perpetuate
with his heirs the treaty concluded with the late
Bhow;” and, accordingly, a treaty was concluded
with the ruling chief. Ram Chand, then only a
Soubahdar, constituting “ him, his heirs and succes-
sors,” hereditary rulers of the territory. Loyal and
well disposed, he won the favour of the British Go-
vernment, who, fifteen years after the conclusion of

THE ADMINISTRATION 01 LORD DALHODSIE.

1854. the treaty, conferred upon him the title of Rajah,
■vrhich he only lived three years to enjoy.

For all purposes of succession he was a childless
man ; and so various claimants to the chiefship ap-
peared. The British agent believed that the most
valid claim was that of the late Rajah’s uncle, who
Avas at all events a direct lineal descendant of one of
the former Soubahdars. He was a leper, and might
have been rejected, but, incapable as he was, the
people accepted him, and, for three years, the admi-
nistration of Jhansi was carried on in his name. At
the end of those three years he died, also without
1838. heirs of the body, and various claimants as before
came forward to dispute the succession. Having no
thought of absorbing the State into our British terri-
tories, Lord Auckland appointed a commission of
British officers to investigate and report upon the
pretensions of the several claimants ; and the result
was, that Government, rightly considering that if the
deceased Rajah had any title to the succession, his
brother had now an equally, good title, aclniowledged
Gungadhur Rao’s right to succeed to the hereditary
chiefship.

Under the administration of Ragonath the Leper
the country had been grossly mismanaged, and as
his successor was scarcely more competent, the British
Government undertook to manage the State for him,
and soon revived the revenue which had dwindled
down under the native rulers. But, in 1843, after
the amputation of a limb of the territory for the sup-
port of the Bundelkund Legion, the administration
was restored to Gungadhur Rao, who carried on the
government for ten years, and then, like his prede-
cessors, died childless.

Then again arose the question of succession ; but

ANNEXATION OP JHANSI.

tlie claims of the different aspirants to the Raj were
regarded with far other eyes than those which had.
scrutinised them in times past. The Governor-Gene-
ral recorded another fatal minute, by which the
death-warrant of the State was signed. It was ruled
that Jhansi was a dependent State, held by the favour
of the Peishwah, as Lord Paramount, and that his
powers had devolved upon the British Government.
A famous minute recorded, in 1837, by Sir Charles
Metcalfe, was cited to show the difference between
Hindoo sovereign Princes and “ chiefs who hold
grants of land or public revenue by gift from a sove-
reign or paramount Power,” and to prove that, in the
latter case, “the Power which made the grant, or
that which by conquest or otherwise has succeeded to
its rights, is entitled to limit succession,” and to
“ resume on failure of direct heirs of the body.”* To
demonstrate the right to resume was in those days
tantamount to exercising it. So Jhansi was resumed.
In vain the widow of the late Rajah, whom the Poli-
tical Agent described as “ a lady bearing a high cha-
racter, and much respected by every one at Jhansi,”
protested that her husband’s House had ever been
faithful to the British Government — in vain she
dwelt upon services rendered in former days to that
Government, and the acknowledgments wliich they
had elicited from our rulers — ^in vain she pointed to
the terms of the treaty, which did not, to her simple
understanding, bar succession in accordance with the
laws and usages of her country — ^in vain she quoted

^ But what Sir Charles Metcalfe 5z^tf^(7ir^(?^,therefore5 the Power 'which
really said was, that the paramount granted, or the Po’wer standing in its
Power was “ entitled to limit succes- place, would have a right to resume
sion according to the Imitations of on failure of heirs male of the body.”
the grant, which in general confirms This passage is very fairly quoted in
it >D heirs male of the body, and Lord Dalhousie’s Minute,
consequently precludes adoption. In

1853 .

THE AHMINISTKATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1853. precedents to show that the grace and favour sought
for Jhansi had been yielded to other States. The fiat
was irrevocable. It had been ruled that the interests
both of the Jhansi State and the British Government
imperatively demanded annexation. “As it lies in
the midst of other British districts,” said Lord Dal-
housie, “the possession of it as our own will tend to
the improvement of the general internal administra-
tion of our possessions in Brmdelkund. That its in-
corporation with the British territories wiU be greatly
for the benefit of the people of Jhansi a reference to
the results of experience will suffice to show.” The
results of experience have since shown to what extent
the people of Jhansi appreciated the benefits of that
incorporation.

Kerowlee. Whilst this question was being disposed of by Lord
Dalhousie and his colleagues, another lapse was under
consideration, which had occurred some time before,
but regarding which no final decision had been
passed. In the summer of 1852, the young chief of
Eerowle'e, one of the smaller Rajpoot States, had died,
after adopting another boy, connected with him by
ties of kindred. At that time Colonel Low repre-
sented the British Government in Rajpootana, and he
at once pronounced his opinion that the adoption
ought immediately to be recognised.

The Governor-General hesitated. It appeared to
him that Kerowlee might, rightly and expediently,
be declared to have lapsed. But his Council was
divided; his Agent in Rajpootana had declared un-
equivocally for the adoption ; and the case differed
in some respects from the Sattarah question, which
had already been decided with the sanction and ap-
proval of the Home Government. How great the
difference really was appeared far more clearly to the

KEEOWLEE.

experienced eye of Sir Frederick Currie tkan to tke 1858.
vision of the Governor-General, clouded as it was hy
the film of a foregone conclusion.* The name of
Sattarah had, by the force of accidental circum-
stances, become great throughout the land, both in
India and in England; it was a familiar name to
thousands and tens of thousands who had never
heard of KeroAvlee. With the Mahrattas, too, the
House of Sivajee had been held in high veneration ;
but the Mahrattas could only boast of recent sove-
reignty; their high estate was one of modem usur-
pation. Their power had risen side by side with
our own, and had been crushed down by our greater
weight and greater vigour. But the Houses of E.aj-
pootana had flourished centuries before the establish-
ment of British rule ; and the least of them had an
ancestral dignity respected throughout the whole
length, and breadth of Hindostan, and treaty rights
not less valid than any possessed by the greatest of
territorial Princes. To men who had graduated,
from boyhood upwards, in Indian statesmanship,
there was something almost sacrilegious in the idea
of laying a destroying hand even upon the least of
the ancient Houses of Rajpootana — of destroying
titles that had been honoured. long' years before the
face of the white man had been seen in the country.

But impressions of this kind are the growth of long
intercourse with the people themselves, and we cannot
be surprised that, after a year- or two of Indian go-
vernment, Lord Dalhousie, with all his unrivalled
quickness of perception, should not have thoroughly
understood the vital differences between the various

Bir Frederick Currie’s Minute facts, dear in its Ipgic, ancunuxcef/*
on the Kerowlee question is an ad- tionable in its political morality,
mirable state-paper—accurate in its

1852.

Jan. 20,
1853.

94 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LOBD DAIHODSIE.

races inlia'bitmg tlie great continent of India. Had
he done so, he ■would at once have sanctioned the
proposed adoption ; as it ■was, he referred the question
to the final decision of the Home Government.

Eager as they ■were at that time to support the policy
of Lord Dalhousie, and entire as was the faith of many
of them in his ■wisdom, the Directors could not look
with favour upon a proposal to conunence the gradual
extinction of the ancient principalities of Rajpootana.
“ It appears to us,” they said, “ that there is a marked
distinction in fact between the case of Kerowlee and
Sattarah, which is not suficiently adverted to in the
Minute of the Governor-General. The Sattarah State
was one of recent origin, derived altogether fi^om the
creation and gift of the British Government, whilst
Kerowlee is one of the oldest of the Rajpoot States,
which has been under the rule of its native Princes
from a period long anterior to the British power in
India. It stands to. us only in the relation of pro-
tected ally, and probably there is no part of India
into which it is less desirable, except upon the
strongest grounds, to substitute our government for
that of the native rulers. In our opinion, such
grounds do not exist in the present case, and we
have, therefore, determined to sanction the succession
of Bhurt Pal.”

But before the arrival of the despatch expressing
these just sentiments and weighty opinions, all chance
of the succession of Bhurt Pal had passed away. Had
the adoption been granted at once, it would, in all
probability, have been accepted by the members of
the late Ilajah’s family, by the principal chiefs, and
by the people of the country. But it is the inevitable
tendency of delay in such a case to unsettle the public
mind, to raise questions ■which but for this suspense

KEKOWLEK.

would not have heen bom, and to excite hopes and issa.
stimulate ambitions which otherwise would have lain
dormant. So it happened that whilst London and
Calcutta were corresponding about the rights of
Bhurt Pal, another claimant to the sovereignty of
Kerowlee was asserting his pretensions in the most
demonstrative manner. Another and a nearer kins-
man of the late Prince — older, and, therefore, of a
more pronounced personal character — stood forward
to proclaim his rights, and to maintain them by arms.

The ladies of the royal family, the chiefs, and the
people, supported his claims; and the representative
of the British Government in Eajpootana recognised
their validity. That representative was Sir Henry
Lawrence. Succeeding General Low in the Agency,
he cherished the same principles as those which had
ever been so consistently maintained by that veteran
statesman ; but circumstances had arisen which moved
him to give them a different application. This new
pretender to the throne had better claims on the score
of consanguinity than Bhurt Pal, but Adoption over-
rides all claims of relationship, and, if the adoption
were valid, the latter was legally the son and heir of
the deceased. In this view, as consonant with the
customs of the country, Henry Lawrence would have
supported the succession of Bhurt Pal ; but, on inves-
tigation, it appeared that all the requirements and
conditions of law and usage had not been fulfilled,
and that the people themselves doubted the validity
of the adoption. It appeared to him, therefore, that
the British Government would best discharge its duty
to Kerowlee by allowing the succession of Muddun
Pal. Even on the score of adoption his claims were
good, for he had been adopted by the eldest of the
late Rajah’s widows, which, in default of adoption by

THE ADMINISTEATION OP EOED DALHOUSIE.

1853. tlie Rajali himself, would have been good against all
claimants. But, in addition to this, it was to be said
of the pretensions of this man that he was older than
the other ; that a minority would thus be avoided
altogether ; that he had some personal claims to con-
sideration ; and that the voice of the chiefs and the
people had decided in his favour. As the succession,
therefore, of Bhurt Pal had not been sanctioned, and
as the decision of the Home Government in his favour
had not been published, there would be no wrong to
him in this preference of his rival, so Henry Lawrence
reconomended, and the Government of Lord Dalhousie
approved, the succession of Muddun Pal to the sove-
reignty of Kerowlee.

So Lapse, in this instance, did not triumph ; and
the ancient Houses of Rajpootana, which, during
these two years of suspense, had awaited the. issue
with the deepest interest, felt some temporary relief
when it was known that the wedge of annexation had
not been driven into the time-honoured circle of the
States. But it is not to be supposed that because no
wrong was done at last no injury was done by the
delay. Public rumour recognises no Secret Depart-
ment. It was well known at every native Court, in
every native bazaar, that the British Government
were discussing the policy of annexing or not annexr
ing Kerowlee. The mere fact that there was, a ques-
tion to be discussed, in such a case, was sufficient to fill
the minds of the people with anxiety and alarm. For
two years Kerowlee was without any other ruler than
the Political Agent of the British Government ; and
this was a significant fact, the impression of which
was not to be removed by the subsequent decision.
The Rajpoot Princes lost their confidence in the good
faith of the. British Government. Kerowlee had beeH

EAJPOOT ALAEMS,

spared, they scarcely knew how ; some were fain h> tSSS.
attribute it to the well-known justice and liberality of
Henry Lawrence. But the same moderation might
not be displayed again ; there were childless men
amongst them ; and from that time a restless, unea^
feeling took possession of them, and no man felt sure
that his House would not perish with him. It was
not strange, indeed, that a year or two afterwards
there should have been in circulation all over the
country ominous reports to the effect that the policy
of Lord Dalhousie had eventually triumphed, and
that the gradual absorption of all the Rajpoot States
had been sanctioned by the Home Government. It
was a dangerous lie ; and even the habitual reticence
of the Court of Directors was not proof against the
grossness of the calumny; so it was authoritatively
contradicted. But not before it had worked its way
in India, and done much to undermine the founda-
tions of that confidence which is one of the main
pillars of our strength.

There is one other story of territorial annexation Sambhulpow
yet to be told — ^briefly, for it was not thought at the
time to be of much political importance, and now is
held but little in remembrance. Beyond the south-
western frontier of Bengal was the territory’" of Sum-
bhulpore. It had formerly been an outlying district
of the Nagpore principality, but had been ceded by
the Bonslah family, and had been bestowed by the
British on a descendant of the old Sumbhulpore
Rajahs, under terms which would have warranted
the resumption of the estate on the death of the first
incumbent. But twice the sovereign rights had been
bestowed anew upon members of the famfiy,, and not
until 1849, when Narain Singh lay at the point uf
death, was it determined to. annex the territory to

THE ADMINISTEATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

liiiD.

The story
of the
P.^ishwah.

the British dominions. There were no heirs of the
hody ; no near relatives of the Rajah. No adoption
had been declared. The country was said to have
been grievously misgoverned. And so there seemed
to be a general agreement that the Lapse was per-
fect, and that annexation might be righteously pro-
claimed. Dalhousie was absent from the Presidency ;
but the case was clear, and the Government neither
in India nor in England hesitated for a moment.
And, perhaps, though it was not without its own
bitter fruit, there is less to be said against it, on the
score of abstract justice, than against anything of
which I have written in this division of my work.

But there were lapses of another kind, lapses
which involved no gain of territory to the British
Government, for the territory had been gained be-
fore. There were several deposed princes in the land,
representatives of ancient Houses, whose sceptres had
passed by conquest or by treaty into the white man’s
hand, but who stiU. enjoyed the possession of consi-
derable revenues, and maintained some semblance of
their former dignity and state. It happened that,
whilst Dalhousie reigned in India, three of these
pensioned princes died. Of the story of one of them
I must write in detail. There had once been three
great Mahratta Houses ; the Houses of Sattarah, of
Nagpore, and of Poonah. It has been told how
Dalhousie extinguished the two first ; the third had
been for some thirty years territorially extinct,
when he was sent out to govern India. In 1818,
at the close of the second great Mahratta war,
the Peishwah, Badjee Rao, surrendered to Sir John
Malcolm. He had been betrayed into hostility, and
treacherous hostility ; he had appealed to the sword,
and he had been fairly beaten ; and there was nothing

THE EALL OE THE PEISHVAH.

left for Mm but to end his days as an outcast and a
fugitive, or to fling himself upon the mercy of the
British Government. He chose the latter course;
and when he gave himself to the English General,
he knew that he was in the hands of one who sym-
pathised with him in his fallen fortunes, and would
be a generous friend to hi m in adversity. Malcolm,
pledged the Government to bestow upon the Peish-
wah, for the support of himself and family, an annual
pension of not less than eight lakhs of rupees. The
promise was said to be an over-liberal one ; and
there were those who at the time condemned Mal-
colm for his profuseness. But he replied, that “it
had been the policy of the British Government, since
its first establishment in India, to act towards princes,
whose bad faith and treachery had compelled it to
divest them of aU power and dominion, with a gene-
rosity which almost lost sight of their offences. The
effect of this course of proceeding in reconciling all
classes to its rule had been great. The liberality and
the humanity which it had displayed on such occa-
sions had, I was satisfied, done more than its arms
towards the firm establishment of its power. It was,
in fact, a conquest over mind, and among men so
riveted in their habits and prejudices as the natives
of their country, the effect, though unseen, was great
beyond calculation.” It was a solace to him to think
that these sentiments were shared by such men as
Mountstuart Elphinstone, David Ochterlony, and
Thomas Mimro.

So Badjee Rao went into honourable seclusion, and
an asylum was found for him at Bithoor, distant
some twelve miles from the great military station
of Cawnpore, in the North-Western Provinces of
India. He was not then an old man, as age is calcu-

H 2

1818 .

100 XHE ADMNISmTION OF LORD DAIHOUSIE.

1818 - 51 . lated by j^'ears, but be was said to be of debauched
habits and feeble constitution ; and no one believed
that he would very long survive to be a burden upon
the Company. But he outlived his power for a
third part of a century, Ihdng resignedly, if not con-
tentedly, in his new home, with a large body of fol-
lowers and dependents, mostly of his own race, and
many others of the outward insignia of state. From
the assemblage, under such circumstances, of so large
a body of Mahrattas, some feeling of apprehension
and alarm might have arisen in the mind of the
British Government, especially in troubled times;
but the fidelity of the ex-Peishwah himself was as
conspicuous as the good conduct and the orderly
behaviour of his people. Nor was it only a passive
loyalty that he manifested ; for twice in critical con-
junctures, when the English were sore-pressed, he
came forward with offers of assistance. When the
War in Afghanistan had drained our Treasury, and
money was grievously wanted, he lent the Company
five lakhs of rupees ; and when, afterwards, our
dominions were threatened with an invasion from
the Punjab, and there was much talk aU over the
country of a hostile alliance between the Sikhs and
the Mahrattas, the steadfastness of his fidelity was
evidenced by an offer made to the British Govern-
ment to raise and to maintain at his own cost a
thousand Horse and a thousand Foot. As he had
the disposition, so also had he the means to serve
us. His ample pension more than sufiiced for the
wants even of a retired monarch ; and as years
passed, people said that he had laid by a great store
of wealth, and asked who was to be its inheritor ?
For it was with him, as it was with other Mahratta
princes, he was going down to the grave leaving no

DEATH OF THE PEISHWAH.

101

BOH to succeed him. So he adopted a son, from his 1818-51.
own family stock,* and, some years before his death,
sought the recognition of the British Government for
an adoption embracing more than the right of suc-
cession to his savings (for this needed no sovereign
sanction) the privilege of succeeding to the title and
the pension of the Peishwah. The prayer was not
granted ; but the Company did not shut out all hope
that, after the death of Badjee Rao, some provision
might be made for his family. The question was re-
served for future consideration — ^that is, until the
contingency of the ex-Peishwah’s death should be-
come an accomplished reality ; and as at this time
the old man was feeble, paralytic, and nearly blind,
it was not expected that his pension would much
longer remain a burden on the Indian revenues.

But not until the 28th of January, 1851, when Death of
there was the weight of seventy-seven years upon
him, did the last of the Peishwahs close his eyes
upon the world for ever. He left behind him a will,
executed in 1839, in which he named as his adopted
son, “ to inherit and be tbe sole master of the Guddee
of the Peishwah, the don i inions, wealth, family pos-
sessions, treasure, and aH Ms real and personal pro-
perty,” a youth known as Doondoo Punt, Nana Sahib. The Nana
When Badjee Rao died, the heir was twenty-seven
years old ; described as “ a quiet, unostentatious
young man, not at all addicted to any extravagant
habits, and invariably showing a ready disposition to
attend to the advice of the British Commissioner.”

^ Strictly it should be said that Kao, my grandson ; these three are
lie adopted three sons and a grand- my sons and grandson. After me
son. His will says : “ That Doondod Doondoo Bunt, Nana, my eldest son.

Pant, Nana, rny eldest son, and Gun- Mookh. Perdan, shall inherit and br;
gadhur Kao, my youngest and third the sole master of the Guddee of the
son, and Sada-Sheo Punt Dada, son Peishwah, &c.” — M8* Eecords^ >
of my second son, Pundoo Kung

102

THE ADMINISTBITION OF LOED DAIHOUSIE.

iSol. What he was safe to inherit was about 3O0,000Z.,
more than one-half of which was invested in Govern-
ment securities ;* hut there was an immense body of
dependents to be provided for, and it was thought
that the British Government might appropriate a
portion of the ex-Peishwah’s stipend to the support
of the family at Bithoor. The management of affairs
was in the hands of the Soubahdar Ramchunder
Punt, a faithful friend and adherent of Badjee Rao,
who counselled his master with wisdom, and con-
trolled his followers with vigour ; and he now, with
all due respect for the British Government, pleaded
the cause of the adopted son of the Peishwah. “ Nana
Sahib,” he said, “ considering the Honourable Com-
pany in the room of the late Maharajah as his pro-
tector and supporter, is full of hopes and free of care
on this subject. His dependence in every way is on
the kindness and liberality of the British Govern-
ment, for the increase of whose power and prosperity
he has ever been, and will continue to be, desirous.”
The British Commissioner at Bithoorf supported the
appeal in behalf of the family, but it met with no
favour in high places. Mr. Thomason was then
Lieutenant-Governor of thn North-Western Provinces.
He was a good man, an able man, a man of high re-
putation, but he was one of the leaders of the New
School, and was no friend to the princes and nobles
of the land ; and he told the Commissioner to dis-
courage all hopes of further assistance in the breasts

* The ojRcial report of the Com- Manson was Commissioner when the
missioner said, 16 lakhs of Govern- Peishwah died, but he left Bithoor
ment paper, 10 lakhs of jewels, 3 shortly afterwards, and Mr. Morland,
lakhs of gold coins, 80,000 rupees then magistrate at Cawnpore, took
gold ornaments, 20,000 rupees silver his place, and on him devolved the
plate. principal business of tlie settlement

j- lit should rather be said, " ttvo of the ex-Peishvah’s affahs.

British Commissioners.” Colonel

THE NiHA SAHIB.

103

of tke family, and to “ strive to induce the numerous li51.
retainers of the Peishwah speedily to disperse and
return to the Deccan.” Lord Dalhousie was Go-
vernor-General ; and, in such a case, his views were
little likely to differ from those of his Lieutenant.

So he declared his opinion that the recommendations
of the Commissioner were “ uncalled for and unrea-
sonable.” “The Governor-General,” it was added,

“ concurs in opinion with his Honour (Mr. Thoma-
son) in thinking the,.;, unaer any circumstances, the
Family have no claim upon the Government; and
he will by no means consent to any portion of the
public revenues being conferred on them. His Lord-
ship requests that the determination of the Govern-
ment of India may be explicitly declared to the
Family without delay.” And it was so declared;
but with some small alleviation of the harshness of
the sentence, for the Jagheer, or rent-free estate, of
Bithoor was to be continued to the Nana Sahib, but
without the exclusive jurisdiction which had been
enjoyed by the ex-Peishwah.

I^en Doondoo Punt learnt that there was no hope Memorial o
of any further assistance to the family at Bithoor
from the liberality of the Government of India, he
determined to appeal to the Court of Directors of
the East India Company, It had been in contem-
plation daring the lifetime of Badjee Rao to adopt
such a course, and a son of the Soubahdar Ram-
chunder had been selected as the agent who was to
prosecute the appeal. But discouraged by the Com-
missioner, the project had been abandoned, and was
not revived until aU other hope had failed after the
ex-Peishwah’s death. Then it was thought that a
reversal of the adverse decision might be obtained
by memorialising the authorities in England, and a

104 THE ADMINISTBATION OF LOED DALEOUSIE,

December 29, memorial was accordingly drawn up and despatclied,
in the usual manner, through the Government in
India. “The course pursued by the local govern-
ments,” it was said, “is not only an unfeeling one
towards the numerous family of the deceased prince,
left almost entirely dependent upon the promises of
the East India Company, but inconsistent with what
is due to the representative of a long line of sove-
reigns. Your memorialist, therefore, deems it expe-
dient at once to appeal to your Honourable Court.,
not merely on the ground of the faith of treaties, but
of a bare regard to the advantages the East India
Company have derived from the last sovereign of the

Mahratta Empire It would be contrary to

the spirit of aH treaties hitherto concluded to attach
a special meaning to an article of the stipulations
entered into, whilst another is interpreted and acted
upon in its most liberal sense.” And then the me-
morialist proceeded to argue, that as the Peishwah,
on behalf of his heirs and successors, had ceded his
territories to the Company, the Company were bound
to pay the price of such cession to the Peishwah and
his heirs and successors. If the compact were lasting
on one side, so also should it be on the other. “ Your
memorialist submits that a cession of a perpetual
revenue of thirty-four lakhs of rupees in considera-
tion of an annual pension of eight lakhs establishes a
de facto presumption that the payment of one is con-
. tingent upon the receipt of the other, and hence that,
as long as those receipts continue, the payment of the
pension is to follow.” It was then argued that the
mention, in the treaty, of the “ Family” of the Peish-
wah indicated the hereditary character of the stipula-
tion, on the part of the Company, as such mention
would be unnecessary and unmeaning in its applica.-

MEMORIAL OE THE NANA SAHIB.

105

tion to a mere life-grant, “for a provision for tlie 1852.
support of the prince necessarily included the main-
tenance of his family and after this, from special
arguments, the Nana Sahib turned to a general asser-
tion of his rights as based on precedent and analogy.

“ Your memorialist,” it was said, “ is at a loss to
account for the difference between the treatment, by
the Company, of the descendants of other princes
and that experienced by the family of the Peishwah,
represented by him. The ruler of Mysore evinced
the most implacable hostility towards the Company’s
government ; and your memorialist’s father was one of
the princes whose aid was invoked by the Company
to crush a relentless enemy. "When that chieftain
fell, sword in hand, the Company, far from abandon-
ing his progeny to their fate, have afforded an asylum
and a liberal support to more than one generation of
his descendants, without distinction between the legi-
timate and the illegitimate. With equal or even
greater liberality the Company delivered the de-
throned Emperor of Delhi from a dungeon, re-in-
vested him with the insignia of sovereignty, and
assigned to him a munificent revenue, which is con-
tinued to his descendants to the present day. Wherein
is your memorialist’s case different? It is true that
the Peishwah, after years of amity with the British
Indian Government, during which he assigned to
them revenues to the amount of half a crore of
rupees, was unhappily engaged in war with them, by
which he perilled his throne. But as he was not
reduced to extremities, and even if reduced, closed
with the terms proposed to him by the British Com-
mander, and ceded his rich domains to place himself
and his family under the fostering care of the Com-
pany, and as the Company still profit by the revenues

106 THE ADMUnSTBATION OF LORD DALHODSIE.

* 852 . of Ms hereditar}' possessions, on what principle are
his descendants deprived of the pension included in
those terms and the vestiges of sovereignty ? Wherein
are the claims of his family to the favour and consi-
deration of the Company less than those of the con-
quered Mysorean or the captive Mogul ?” Then the
Nana Sahib began to set forth his own personal
claims as founded on the adoption in his favour ; he
quoted the best authorities on Hindoo law to prove
that the son by adoption has all the rights of the
son by birth; and he cited numerous instances,
drawn from the recent history of Hindostan and the
Deccan, to show how such adoptions had before been
recognised by the British Government. “The same
fact,” he added, “ is evinced in the daily practice of
the Company’s Courts aU over India, in decreeing to
the adopted sons of princes, of zemindars, and persons
of every grade, the estates of those persons to the ex-
clusion of other heirs of the blood. Indeed, unless
the British Indian Government is prepared to abro-
gate the Hindoo Sacred Code, and to interdict the
practice of the Hindoo reli^on, of both of which
adoption is a fundamental feature, your memorialist
cannot understand with what consistency his claim
to the pension of the late Peishwah can be denied,
merely on the ground of his being an adopted
son.

Another plea for refusal might be, nay, had been,
based upon the fact that Badjee Eao, from the
savings of Ms pension, had accumulated and left
behind him a large amount of private property,
which no one could alienate from his heirs. Upon
this the Nana Sahib, with not unreasonable indigna-
tion, said : “ That if the withholding of the pension
proceeded from the supposition that the late Peish-

MEMORUL OF THE KANA SAHIB.

107

wall had left a sufficient provision for Ms family, it 1853 ,
would he altogether foreign to the question, and un-
precedented in the annals of the History of British
India. The pension of eight lakhs of rupees per
annum has been agreed upon on the part of the
British Government, to enable his Highness the late
Badjee Rao to support himself and family; it is im-
material to the British Government what portion of
that sum the late prince actually expended, nor has
there been any agreement entered into to the effect
that his Highness the late Badjee Rao should be
compelled to expend every fraction of an annual
allowance accorded to him by a special treaty, in
consideration of his ceding to the British Govern-
ment territories yielding an annual and perpetual
revenue of thirty-four lakhs of rupees. Nobody on
earth had a right to control the expenditure of that
pension, and if his Highness the late Badjee Rao had
saved every fraction of it, he would have been per-
fectly justified in doing so. Your memorialist would
venture to ask, whether the British Government ever
deigned to ask in what manner the pension granted
to any of its numerous retired servants is expended ?
or whether any of them saves a portion, or what
portion, of his pension? and, furthermore, in the
event of its being proved that the incumbents of such
pensions had saved a large portion thereof, it would
be considered a sufficient reason for withholding the
pension from the children in the proportions stipu-
lated by the covenant entered into with its servant ?

And yet is a native prince, the descendant of an an-
cient scion of Royalty, who relies upon the justice
and liberality of the British Government, deserving
of less consideration than its covenanted servants?

To disperse, however, any erroneous impression that

108 THE ADMINISTEATION OF LOED DAIHOUSIE.

1S52. may exist on the part of the British Government on
that score, your memorialist would respectfully beg
to observe that the pension of eight lakhs of rupees,
stipulated for by the treaty of 1818, was not exclu-
sively for the support of his Highness the late Badjee
Eao and his family, but also for the maintenance of
a large retinue of faithful adherents, who preferred
following the ex-Peishwah in his voluntary exile.
Their large number, fully known to the British Go-
vernment, caused no inconsiderable call upon the
reduced resources of his Highness ; and, furthermore,
if it be taken into consideration the appearance
which Native princes, though rendered powerless,
are still obliged to keep up to ensure respect, it may
be easily imagined that the savings from a pension of
eight lakhs of rupees, granted out of an annual re-
venue of thirty-four lakhs, could not have been large.
But notwithstanding this heavy call upon the limited
resources of the late Peishwah, his Highness hus-
banded his resources with much care, so as to be
enabled to invest a portion of his annual income in
public securities, which, at the time of his death,
yielded an income of about eighty thousand rupees.
Is then the foresight and the economy on the part of
his Highness the late Badjee Rao to be regarded as
an offence deserving to be visited with the punish-
ment of stopping the pension for the support of his
4IS. ll«eords. family guaranteed by a formal treaty ?”

But neither the rhetoric nor the reasoning of the
Nana Sahib had any effect upon the Home Govern-
ment. The Court of Directors of the East India
Company were hard as a rock, and by no means to
be moved to compassion. They had alreadv ex-
pressed an opinion that the savings of the Peishwah
were sufficient for the maintenance of his heirs and

-AZIM-OOLUH KHAN.

109

dependents ;* and nrhen tlie memorial came before isss.
them, they summarily rejected it, writing out to the the'^CompMy.
Government to “inform the memorialist that the
pension of his adoptive father was not hereditary,
that he has no claim whatever to it, and that his
application is wholly inadmissible.” Such a reply as May i, 1S53.
this must have crushed out all hope from the Bithoor
Family, and shown the futility of further action; but
it happened that, before this answer was received,
the Nana Sahib had sent an agent to England to pro-
secute his claims. This agent was not the son of the
old Mahratta Soubahdar, to whom the mission first
contemplated was to have been entrusted, but a
young and astute' Mahomedan, with a good presence,
a plausible address, and a knowledge of the English
language. His name was Azim-ooUah Ehan. In the
summer of 1 853 he appeared in England, and in con-
junction with an Englishman, named Biddle, prose-
cuted the claims of the Nana, but with no success.

Judgment had already been recorded, and nothing
that these agents could say or do was likely to cause
its reversal.

So Azim-ooUah Khan, finding that little or nothing
could be done in the way;, of business for his em-
ployer, devoted his energies to the pursuit of pleasure
on his own account. Passing by reason of his fine
clothes for a person of high station, he made his way
into good society, and is said to have boasted of
favours received from. English ladies. Outwardly he
was a gay, smiling, voluptuous sort of person ; and

* Ma^ 19, 1852 . — We entirely three years afforded him the means
approve of the decision of the Go- of making an abundant provision for
vernor-General that the adopted son his family and dependents, and the
and dependents on Badjee Rao have property, which he is known to have
no claim upon the British Govern- left, is amply sufScient for their
ment. The large pension which the support.” — T/ie Court of Dtreetors to
ex-Peishwah enjoyed during thirty- the Government of India, — M.S,

110 THE ADMINISTKATION or lOEB DALHOTJSIE.

1863. even a shrewd observer might have thought that he
was intent always upon the amusement of the hour.
There was one man, however, in England at that
time, who, perhaps, knew that the desires of the
plausible Mahomedan were not bounded by the en-
joyment of the present. For it happened that the
agent, who had been sent to England by the deposed
Sattarah Family, in the hope of obtaining for them
the restoration of their principality, was still resident
in the English metropolis. This man was a Mahratta
named Rungo Bapojee. Able and energetic, he had
pushed his suit with a laborious, untiring conscien-
tiousness, rarely seen in a Native envoy ; but though
aided by much soundness of argument and much
fluency of rhetoric expended by others than hired
advocates, upon the case of the Sattarah Princes, he
had failed to make an impression on their judges.
Though of different race and different religion, these
two men were knit together by common sympathies
and kindred tasks, and in that autumn of 1853, by
like failures and disappointments to brood over and
the same bitter animosities to cherish. What was
said and what was done between them no Historian
can relate. They were adepts in the art of dissimula-
tion. So the crafty Mahratta made such a good im-
pression even upon those whom his suit had so
greatly troubled, that his debts were paid for him,
and he was sent back at the public expense to Bom-
bay with money in his pocket from the Treasury of
the India House ;* whilst the gay Mahomedan floated
about the surface of society and made a conspicuous
figure at crowded watering-places, as if he dearly
loved England and the English, and could not per-

* Raago Bapojee retamed to India Company gave liim 2500/. and
India in December, 1853, Tbe Bast a free passage.

vMNaTIC and TANJOEE. 11 1

suade himself to return to his own dreary and be- 3853.
nighted land.

So little material are they to this History that I Carnatic an-’
need not write in detail of the circumstances attend-
ing the extinction of the titular sovereignties of the
Carnatic and Tanjore, two ancient Houses, one Ma-
homedan, the other Hindoo, that had once flourished
in the Southern Peninsula. Lord WeUesley had
stripped them of territorial power. It remained,
therefore, only for Lord Dalhousie, when the Newab 1854
of the Carnatic and the Rajah of Tanjore died with- 1855.
out heirs of the body, to abolish the titular dignities
of the two Families and “ to resume the large stipends
they had enjoyed, as Lapses to Government.” Pen-
sions were settled upon the surviving members of
the two Families ; but in each case, the head of the
House made vehement remonstrance against the ex-
tinction of its honours, and long and loudly cla-
moured for restitution. There were many, doubt-
less, in Southern India who still clung with feelings
of veneration to these shadowy pageants, and de-
plored the obliteration of the royal names that they
had long honoured ; and as a part of the great sys-
tem of demolition these resumptions made a bad im-
pression .in more remote places. But empty titular
dignities are dangerous possessions, and it may be,
after aU, only mistaken kindness to perpetuate them
when the substance of royalty is gone.

In tins chapter might have
been included other cases of L^ipse,
as those of the Pergunnah, of Odei-
poor, on the South-Western Pron-
tier, and of Jeitpore, in Bundle-
khund; but, although every addi-
tional absorption of territory tended

to increase, in some measure, tlie
feeling of insecurity^ in men’s minds,
they were comparatively of little po-
litical importance; and Lord Lal-
housie did not think them worth a
paragraph in his Parewell Minute.

112

the ADMUSiSlBATION OF LORD DALHOUSIB

1856.

CHAPTER III.

mr AKiTr:sATro27 op oude— -early histoet op the peovutce— the treaty

OE 1801 — ^EPPECTS OP THE DOUBLE GOVERNMENT — CREATION OP THE
RINGSHIP — PROGRESS OP MISRULE — ^REPEATED WARNINGS— THE UN-
RATIPIED TREATY — COLONEL SLEEMAN’s REPORTS — LORD DALHOUSIE’S
MINUTE — ^VIEWS OP THE COURT OF DIRECTORS — SIR JAMES OUTRAM
RESIDENT — ANNEXATION PROCLAIMED.

Theek was still anotlier province to be absorbed
into tbe British Empire under the administration of
Lord Dalhousie ; not by conquest, for its rulers had
ever been our friends, and its people had recruited
our armies ; not by lapse, for there had always been
a son or a brother, or some member of the royal
house, to fulfil, according to the Mahomedan law of
succession, the conditions of heirship, and there was
stiU a king, the son of a king, upon the throne ; but
by a simple assertion of the dominant will of the
British Government. This was the great province of
Oude, in the very heart of Hindostan, which had long
tempted us, alike by its local situation and the reputed
wealth of its natural resources.

It is a story not to be lightly told in a few sentences.
Its close connexion with some of the more important
passages of this history fully warrants some ampli-
tude of narration. Before the British settler had esta-
blished himself on the peninsula of India, Oude was

EAULY CONNEXION WITH OUDE.. IlS

a pTovince of the Mogul Empire. When that empire 1756.179G.
was distracted and weakened by the invasion of
Nadir Shah, the treachery of the servant was turned
against the master, and little by little the Governor
began to govern for himself. But holding only an
official, though an hereditary'title, he still acknow-
ledged his vassalage ; and long after the Great Mogul
had shrivelled into a pensioner and a pageant, the
Newah-Wuzeer of Oude was nominally his minister.

' Of the earliest history of British connexion with
the Court of the Wuzeer, it is not necessary to write
in detail. There is nothiug less creditable in the
annals of the rise and progress of the British power
in the East. The Newab had territory; the Newab
had subjects ; the Newab had neighbours ; more than
all, the Newab had money. But although he pos^
sessed in abundance the raw material of soldiers, he
had not been able to organise an army sufficient for
^ all the external and internal requirements of the
State, and so he was fain to avail himself of the
superior militarj'^ slrill and discipline of the white
men, and to hire British battalions to do his work.

At first this was done in an irregular, desultory kind
of way, job-work, as in the infamous case of the
Rohilla massacre ; but afterwards it assumed a more
formal and recognised shape, and solemn engagements
Were entered into with the Newab, by which we un-
dertook, in consideration of certain money-payments,
known as the Subsidy, to provide a certain number of
British troops for the internal and external defence of
his Excellency’s dominions.

In truth it was a vicious system, one that can
hardly be too severely condemned. By it we esta-
blished a Double Government of the worst kind. The
Rclitical and Military government Was in the -hands

114 THE APMDHSTIUTION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

170 G. of tlie Company ; the internal administration of the
Oude territories still rested with the Newah-Wuzeer.
In other words, hedged in and protected by the
British battalions, a bad race of Eastern Princes were
suffered to do, or not to do, what they liked. Under
such influences it is not strange that disorder of every
kind ran riot over the whole length and breadth of
the land. Never were the evils of misrule more hor-
ribly apparent ; never were the vices of an indolent
and rapacious Government productive of a greater
sum of misery. The extravagance and profligacy of
the Court were written in hideous characters on the
desolated face of the country. It was left to the
Nabob’s Government to dispense justice : justice was
not dispensed. It was left to the Nabob’s Govern-
ment to collect the revenue ; it was wrung from the
people at the point of the bayonet. The Court was
sumptuous and profligate; the people poor and
wretched The expenses of the royal household were
enormous. Hundreds of richly-caparisoned voracious
elephants ate up the wealth of whole districts, or car-
ried it in glittering apparel on their backs. A multitu-
dinous throng of unserviceable attendants ; bands of
dancing-girls ; flocks of parasites ; costly feasts and
ceremonies ; folly and pomp and profligacy of every
conceivable description, drained the coffers of the
State. A rlcious and extravagant Government soon
beget a poor and a suffering people ; a poor and a
’suffering people, in turn,, perpetuate the curse of a
bankrupt Government. The process of retaliation is
sure. To support the lavish expenditure of the Court
the mass of the people were persecuted and outraged.
Bands of armed naercenaries were let loose upon the
ryots , in' support of' the rapacity of the Aumils, or
Uevenue-farmers, whose appearance was a terror to

INTERVENTION OF LORD WELLESLEY.

115

the people. Under such, a system of cruelty and 179S,
extortion, the country soon became a desert, and the
Government then learnt by hard experience that the
prosperity of the people is the only true source of
wealth. The lesson was thrown away. The decrease
of the revenue vras not accompanied by a corre-
sponding diminution of the profligate expenditure of
the Court, or by any effort to introduce a better
administrative system. Instead of this, every new
year saw the unhappy country lapsing into worse dis-
order, with less disposition, as time advanced, on the
part of the local Government to remedy the evils be-
neath which it was groaning. Advice, protestation,
remonstrance were in vain. Lord Cornwallis advised,
protested, remonstrated: Sir John Shore advised,
protested, remonstrated. At last a statesman of a
very different temper appeared upon the scene.

Lord Wellesley was a despot in every pulse of his
heart. But he was a despot of the right kind ; for
he was a man of consummate vigour and ability, and
he seldom made a mistake. The condition of Oude
soon attracted his attention ; not because its govern-
ment was bad and its people were wretched, but be-
cause that country might either be a bulwark of
safety to our own dominions, or a sea of danger which
might overflow and destroy us. That poor old blind
ex-King, Shah Zemaun, of the Suddozye family of
Caubul, known to the present generation as the feeble
appendage of a feeble puppet, had been, a little while
before the advent of Lord Wellesley, in the heyday of
his pride and power, meditating great deeds which he
had not the ability to accomplish, and keeping the
British power in India in a chronic state of unrest.

If ever there had been any real peril, it had passed
away before the new century was a year old But it

116 THE ADMUHSTEATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1799. iniglit arise again; Doubtless tbe military strength
of the Afghans was marvellously overrated in those
"days ; but stiU there was the fact of a minacious Ma-
homedan power beyond the frontier," not only medi-
tating invasion, but stirring up the’ Mahomedan
Princes of India to combine in a religious war against
the usurping Feringhee. Saadut Ali was then on the
musnud of Oude ; he was the creature and the friend
of the English, but Vizier Ali, whom he had sup-
planted, had intrigued with Zemaun Shah, and would
not only have welcomed, but have subsidised also an
Afghan force in his own dominions. At the bottom
of all our alarm, at that time, were some not unrea-
sonable apprehensions of the ambitious designs of the
first Napoleon. At all events, it was sound policy to
render Oude powerful for good and poweriess for
evil. To the accomplishment of this it was necessary
that large bodies of ill-disciplined and irregularly
paid native troops in the service of the Nfewab-Wuzeer
— ^lawless bands that had been a terror alike to him
and to his people — should be forthwith disbanded,
and that British troops should occupy their place.
Now, already the Vuzeer was paying seventy-six
lakhs of rupees, or more than three-quarters of a
million of money, for his subsidised British troops,
and though he was willing to disband his own levies,
and thereby to secure some saving to the State, it
was but small in proportion to the expense of the
more costly machinery of British military defence
now to be substituted for them. The additional bur-
den to be imposed upon Oude was little less than half
a million of money, and the unfortunate Wuzeer,
whose resources had been strained to the utmost to
pay the . previous subsidy, declared his inability to
meet any; further demands on his treasury. This was

THE TREATY OF 1801.

117

what Lord Wellesley expected— nay, more, it was
what he wanted. If the Wuzeer could not pay in
money, he could pay in money’s worth. He had rich
lands that might be ceded in perpetuity to the Com-
pany for the punctual payment of the subsidy. So
the Governor-General prepared a treaty ceding the
required provinces, and with a formidable array of
British troops at his call, dragooned the Wuzeer into
sullen submission to the wUl of the English Sultan.
The new treaty was signed ; and districts then yield-
ing a million and a half of money, and now nearly
double that amount of annual revenue, passed under
the administration of the British Government.

Now, this treaty — ^the last ever ratified between
the two Governments — bound the Newab Wuzeer to
“establish in his reserved dominions such a system of
administration, to be carried on by his own officers,
as should be conducive to the prosperity of his sub-
jects, and be calculated to secure the lives and pro-
perties of the inhabitants,” and he undertook at the
same time “ always to advise with and to act in con-
formity to the counsels of the officers of the East
India Company.” But the English ruler knew well
that there was small hope of these conditions being
fulfilled. “I am satisfied,” he said, “that no effec-
tual security can be provided against the ruin of the
province of Oude until the exclusive management of
the civil and military government of that country
shah, be transferred to the Company under suitable
provisions for the maintenance of his Excellency and
his family.” He saw plainly before him the break-
down of the whole system, and believed that in the
course of a few years the entire administration of the
province would be transferred to the hands of our
British officers. There was one thing, however, on

1800.

1801,

118 THE iDMUOSTEATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1801-17. wliicli he did not calculate — ^the moderation of his
successors. He lived nearly half a century after
these words were written, and yet the treaty outlived
him by many years.

If there was, at any time, hope for Oude, under
purely native administration, it was during the
wuzeership of Saadut Ali, for he was not a bad man,
and he appears to have had rather enlightened views
with respect to some important administrative ques-
tions.* But the opportunity was lost ; and whilst
the counsels of our British officers did nothing for the
people, the bayonets of our British soldiers restrained
them from doing anything for themselves. Thus
matters grew from bad to worse, and from worse to
worst. One Governor-General followed another ; one
Resident followed another ; one Wuzeer followed an-
other: but stiU the great tide of evil increased in
volume, in darkness, and in depth.

But, although the Hewab-Wuzeers of Oude were,
doubtless, bad rulers and bad men, it must be ad-
mitted that they were good allies. F alse to their people
— false to their own manhood — ^they were true to the
British Government. They were never known to break
out into open hostility, or to smoulder in hidden trea-
chery against us; and they rendered good service, when
they could, to the Power to which they owed so little.
They supplied our armies, in time of war, with grain ,
they supplied us with carriage- cattle; better still,
they supplied us with cash. There was money in the

* Sir Henry Lawence says that to the resentment he felt for his
he was “in advance of the Bengal own wrongs, and the bitterness of
Government of the day on revenue soul with which he must have re-
arrangements,” and gives two strik- ceived all advice from his oppressors,
ing instances of the fact. With cha- no less than to the impunity with
racteristic candour and impartiality, which they enabled bim to play the
Lawrence adds that Saadut All’s Calcutta Review^ vol. iii,

mal-admiuistration was “ mainly at- See also Lawrence’s Essays, in which
tributable to English interference, this paper is printed.

PROGRESSIVE MISRULE.

119

Treasury of Lucknow, wken tkere was none in the
Treasury of Calcutta; and the time came when the
Wuzeer’s cash was needed by the British ruler. En-
gaged in an extensive and costly war, Lord Hastings
wanted more millions for the prosecution of his great
enterprises. They were forthcoming at the right
time ; and the British Government were not un-
willing in exchange to bestow both titles and terri-
tories on the Wuzeer. The times were propitious.
The successful close of the Nepaul war placed at our
disposal an unhealthy and impracticable tract of
country at the foot of the HiUs. This “ terai” ceded
to us by the Nepaulese was sold for a million of
money to the Wuzeer, to whose domains it was con-
tiguous, and he himself expanded and bloomed into
a King under the fostering sun of British favour and
affection.* The interest of the other million was paid
away by our Government to a tribe of Oude pen-
sioners, who were not sorry to exchange for a British
guarantee the erratic benevolence of their native
masters.

It would take long to trace the history of the pro-
gressive misrule of the Oude dominions under a suc-
cession of sovereigns aU of the same class — passive
permitters of evil rather than active perpetrators of
iniquity, careless of, but not rejoicing in, the suffer-
ings of their people. The rulers of Oude, whether
Wuzeers or Kings, had not the energy to be tyrants.

* Sir Jolin Malcolm said that the rence seems to have tbouglit that
very mention of '‘his Majesty of this was precisely what was in*
Oude” made him sick. “ Would I tended. “ The Newab Ghazee-ood-
make,” he said, a golden calf, and deen Hyder,” he wrote, “was en-
suder him to throw off his subordi- couraged to assume the title of
nate title, and assume equality with King; Lord Hastings calculated on
the degraded representative of a line this exciting a rivalry between the
of monarchs to whom his ancestors Oude and I)elhi Lamilies.” — Cal
have been for ages really or nomi- cuUa Ueview^ vol. iii. ; and Essays,
nally subject Sir Henry Law- page 119.

1817.

120 THE ADMINISTEATIOII OF LOED DALHOCSIK.

1817. They simply allowed things to take their coursei
Sunk in voluptuousness and pollution, often too hor-
ribly revolting to be described, they gave themselves
np to the guidance of pandars and parasites, and
cared not so long as these wretched creatures admi-
nistered to their sensual appetites. Afiairs of State
were pushed aside as painful intrusions. Corruption
stalked openly abroad. Every one had his price.
Place, honour, justice — everything was to be bought.
Fiddlers and barbers, pimps and mountebanks, be-
came great functionaries. There were high revels at
the capital, whilst, in the interior of the country,
every kind of enormity was being exercised to wring
from the helpless people the money which supplied
the indulgences of the Court. Much of the land was
fa.rmed out to large contractors, who exacted every
possible farthing from the cultivators ; and were not
seldom, upon complaint of extortion, made, unless
inquiry were silenced by corruption, to disgorge
into the royal treasury a large portion of their gains.
Murders of the most revolting type, gang-robberies
of the most outrageous character, were committed in
open day. There were no Courts of J ustice except at
Lucknow; no Police but at the capital and on the
frontier. The British troops were continually called
out to coerce refractory landholders, and to stimulate
revenue-collection at the point of the bayonet. The
sovereign — Wuzeer or King — ^knew that they would
do their duty ; knew that, under the obligations of the
treaty, his authority would be supported ; and so he
lay secure in his Zenana, and fiddled whilst his coun-
try was in flames.

And so years passed ; and ever went there from the
Residency to the Council-chamber of the Supreme
Government the same unvarying story of frightful
misrule. Residents expostulated, Govemors-General

LOUD WILLIAM BENTIKCK AT LUCKNOW.

121

protested against it. The protests in due course be-
came threats. Time after time it was announced to
the rulers of Oude that, unless some great and imme-
diate reforms were introduced into the system of
administration, the British Government, as lords-
paramount, would have no course left to them but
to assume the direction of affairs, and to reduce the
sovereign of Oude to a pensioner and a pageant.

By no man was the principle of non-interference
supported more strenuously, both in theory and in
practice, than by Lord William Bentinck. But in
the affairs of this Oude State he considered that he
was under a righteous necessity to interfere. In April,
1831, he visited Lucknow ; and there, distinctly and
emphatically told the King that “ unless his terri-
tories were governed upon other principles than those
hitherto followed, and the prosperity of the people
made the principal object of his administration, the
precedents afforded by the principalities of the Car-
natic and Tanjore would be applied to the kingdom
of Oude, and to the entire management of the coun-
try, and the King would be transmuted into a State
prisoner.” This was no mere formal harangue, but
the deliberate enunciation of the Government of
India ; and to increase the impression which it was
calculated to make on the mind of the King, the
warning was afterwards communicated to him in
WTiting. Butj spoken or written, the words were of
no avail. He threw himself more than ever into the
arms of parasites and pandars ; plunged more deeply
into debauchery than before, and openly violated all
decency by appearing drunk in the public streets of
Lucknow.* With the corruption of the Court the

* This was Nussur-ood-deenHyder tive meiits. Colonel Sleeman seems
— ^the second of the Oude Idngs, and to have tliought that he might have
perhaps the worst. I speak du- extracted more good out of Nussur-
biously, however, of their compara- 'ocd-deen than out of any of- the rest*

lS3i.

122 THE ADMINISTEATION OF LOBD DALHOUSIE.

1E31. disorders of the country increased. The crisis seemed
now to have arrived. A communication was made
to the Court of Oude, that “ instructions to assume
the government of the country, if circumstances
should render such a measure necessary, had arrived,
and that their execution was suspended merely in the
hope that the necessity of enforcing them might he
obviated.”

But in what manner was the administration to be
assumed — ^in what manner was the improvement of
the country to be brought about by the intervention
of the British Government? There were different
courses open to us, and they were aU diligently consi-
dered. We might appoint a Minister of our own
selection, and rule through him by the agency of the
Resident. We might depose the ruling sovereign,
and set up another and more hopeful specimen of
royalty in his place. We might place the country
under European administration, giving aU the sur-
plus revenues to the King. We might assume the
entire government, reducing the King to a mere
titular dignitary, and giving him a fixed share of the
annual revenues. Or we might annex the country
outright, giving him so many lakhs of rupees a year,
without reference to the revenues of the principality.
The ablest and most experienced Indian statesmen of
the day had been invited to give their opinions.
Malcolm and Metcalfe spoke freely out. The first of
the above schemes seemed to ■represent the mildest
form of interference ; but both the soldier and the
civilian unhesitatingly rejected it as the most odious,'
and, in practice, the most ruinous of aU interposi-
tion. Far better, they said, to set up a new King, or
even to assume the government for ourselves. But
those were days when native dynasties were not con-
sidered unmixed evils. «nd native institutions were not

MODERATION OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

123

pure abominations in our eyes. And it was tbougbt las?.
that we might assume the administration of Oude, but
not for ourselves. It was thought that the British
Government might become the guardian and trustee
of the King of Oude, administer his affairs through
native agency and in accordance with native institu-
tions, and pay every single rupee into the royal trea-
sury.

This was the scheme of Lord WUliam Bentinck, a
roan of unsurpassed honesty and justice ; and it met
with favourable acceptance in Leadenhall-street. The
Court of Directors at that time, true to the old tradi-
tions of the Company, were slow to encourage their
agents to seek pretexts for the extension of their
dominions. The despatches which they sent out to
India were for the most part distinguished by a
praiseworthy moderation; sometimes, indeed, by a
noble frankness and sincerity, which showed that the
authors of them were above aU disguises and pre-
tences. They now looked the Oude business fairly
in the face, but hoping still against hope fhat there
might be some amelioration, they suffered, after the
receipt of Lord William Bentinck’s report, a year to
pass away, and then another year, before issuing
authoritative orders, and then they sent forth a
despatch, which was intended to bring the whole
question to a final issue. They spoke of the feelings 1834 , '
which the deplorable situation of a country so long
and so nearly connected with them had excited in
their minds — of the obligations which such a state of
things imposed upon them — of the necessity of find-
ing means of effecting a great alteration. They ac-
knowledged, as they had acknowledged before, that
our connexion with the country had largely contri-
buted to the sufferings of the people, inasmuch as it
had afforded protection to tyranny, and rendered

124 THE admutistratiok of lord dalhousie.

1834 . hopeless the resistance of the oppressed.* This made
it the more incumbent upon them to adopt measures
for the mitigation, if not the removal, of the existing
evil. They could not look on whilst the ruin of the
country was consummated. It was certain that some-
thing must be done. But what was that something
to be ? Then they set in array before them, some-
what as I have done above, the different measures
which might be resorted to, and, dweUing upon the
course which Bentinck had recommended, placed in
the hands of the Grovernor-General a discretionary
power to carry the proposed measure into effect at
such period, and in such a manner as might seem
advisable, but with the utmost possible consideration
for the King, whose consent to the proposed arrange-
ment was, if possible, to be obtained. It was sug-
gested that all the titles and honours of sovereignty
should remain with his Majesty as before; that the
revenues should be mainly expended in the adminis-
tration and the improvement of the country, and
that either the surplus, or a fixed stipend, should be
assigned to the King. But, at the same time, the
Government were instructed, in the event of their
proceeding to assume the administration of the coun-
try, distinctly to announce that, so soon as the neces-
sary reforms should have been effected, the admi-
nistration of the country, as in the case of Nagpore,
would be restored to its native rulers.

Colonel John Low, of whose character and career
I have already spoken, was then Resident at Luck-

* Eor a long time, as we have vengeance.” This scandal no longer
said, onr troops were^ employed by existed ; but our battalions were
tlie King’s officers to aid tnem in the still stationed in the country, ready
collection of the revenue; thereby to dragoon down any open insur-
activc, as the Court frankly described rection that might result from the
it, as “ instruments of extortion and misgovernment of Oude.

raws OF COLONEL LOW.

125

now. The despatch of the Court of Directors, autho- 1S35.
rising the temporary assumption of the Government
of Oude, was communicated to him, and he pondered
over its contents. The scheme appeared in his eyes
to be distinguished by its moderation and humanity,
and to be one of a singularly disinterested character.

But he was convinced that it would be misunderstood.

He said that, however pure the motives of the British
Government might be, the natives of India would
surely believe that we had taken the country for our-
selves. So he recommended the adoption of another
method of obtaining the same end. Fully impressed
with the necessity of removing the reigning King,
Nussur-ood-deen, he advised the Government to set
up another ruler in his place; and in order that
the measure might be above all suspicion, to abstain
from receiving a single rupee, or a single acre of
ground, as the price of his elevation. “ What I re-
commend is this,” he said, “ that the next heir should
be invested with the full powers of sovereignty ; and
that the people of Oude should continue to live under
their own institutions.” He had faith in the charac-
ter of that next heir ; he believed that a change of
men would produce a change of measures ; and, at aU
events, it was but bare justice to try the experiment.

But, before anything had been done by the Go-
vernment of India, in accordance with the discretion,
delegated to them by the Court of Directors, the ex-
perinient which Low had suggested inaugurated itself.

Hot without. suspicion of poison, but really, I believe,
killed only by strong drink, ' Nussur-ood-deen Hyder
died.on a memorable July night. Jt was a crisis of 1837.
no cestnmon magnitude, for there was a disputed suc-
cession ; and large bodies of lawless native troops' in
Lucknow were ready to strike at a moinent’s notice.

126 THE ADMINISTRATION OE LORD DALHOTJSIF.

1837 . The cool courage of Low and his assistants saved the
city from a deluge of blood. An uncle of the deceased
Prince — an old man and a cripple, respectable in his
feebleness — was declared King, with the consent of
the British Government ; and the independence of
Oude had another lease of existence.

Lord Auckland was, at that time, Governor- General
of India. The new King, who could not but feel
that he was a creature of the British, pledged himself
to sign a new treaty. And soon it was laid before
him. That the engagements of the old treaty had
been violated, day after day, year after year, for more
than a third part of a century, was a fact too patent
to be questioned. The misgovernment of the coun-
try was a chronic breach of treaty. Whether the
British or the Oude Government were more respon-
sible for it was somewhat doubtful to every clear
understanding and every unprejudiced mind. The
source of the failure was in the treaty itself, which
the author of it well knew from the first was one of
impossible fulfilment. But it was still a breach of
treaty, and there was another in the entertainment
of vast numbers of soldiers over and above the stipu-
lated allowance. Those native levies had gradually
swollen, according to Resident Low’s calculations, to
the bulk of seventy thousand men. Here was an evil
not to be longer permitted ; wonder, indeed, was it
that it should have been permitted so long. This the
new treaty was to remedy ; no lessth^ the continued
mal-administration of the country by native agency.
It provided, therefore, that in the event of any fur-
ther - protracted misrule, the British Government
should be entitled to appoint its own officers to the
management of any part, small or great, of the pro-
vince; that the old native levies should be abam

THE DISALLOWED TREATY.

127

dcJied, and a new force, commanded by British
officers, organised in its place, at the cost of the Oude
Government. But there was no idea of touching, in
any other way, the revenues of the country. An
account was to be rendered of every rupee received
and expended, and the balance was to be paid punc-
tually into the Oude Treasury.

This was the abortion, often cited in later years as
the. Oude Treaty of 1837. Authentic history recites
that the Government of India were in throes with it,
but the strangling hand of higher authority crushed
all life out of the thing before it had become a fact.
The treaty was whoUy and absolutely disallowed by
the Home Government.* They took especial excep-
tion to the establishment of the new auxiliary force,
which was to cost the Oude Treasury sixteen lakhs
of rupees a year; for, with aU the pure logic of
honesty, they said that the treaty of 1801 had made
it compulsory on the British Government to provide
for the defence of the country, and that a large tract
of territory had been ceded with the express object of
securing the payment of the troops necessary for this
purpose. If, then, it were expedient to organise a
fresh force under British officers, it was for the Com-
pany, not for the Oude Government, to defray the
expenses of the new levy. But not only on these
grounds did they object to the treaty. It is true
that, a few years before, they had given the Governor-
General discretionary power to deal, as he thought
best, with the disorders of Oude, even to the extent
of a temporary assumption of the government ; but
this authority had been issued at a time when Nussur-
ood-deen," of whose vicious incapacity they had had

That is to say, by the Secret Committee, 'wlio h^d, by Acji pf Pax**
Ifj^ent^. special powers. iatliiS.jnatter of Treatyrmaking.

1S37.

128

THE ADMINISTBATION 01 LOBH DAIHOUSIE.

1S38. many years’ experience, sat upon tlie ttrone ; ana
the Home Government were strongly of opinion that
the new King, of whose character they had received
a; favourable account, ought to be allowed a fair
trial, under the provisions of the treaty existing at
the time of his accession to the throne. They there-
fore directed the abrogation, not of any one article,
but of the entire treaty. Wishing, however, the
annulment of the treaty to appear rather as an act of
grace from the Government of India than as the result
of positive and unconditional instructions from Eng-
land, they gave a large discretion to the Governor-
General as to the mode of announcing this abrogation
to the Court of Lucknow.

The receipt of these orders disturbed and perplexed
the Governor-General. Arrangements for the orga-
nisation of the Oude auxiliary force had already- ad-
vanced too far to admit of the suspension of the
measure. It was a season, however, of difficulty and
supposed danger, for the seeds of the Afghan war had
been sown. Some, at least, of our regular troops in
Oude were wanted to do our own work ; so, in any
view of the case, it was necessary to fill their places.
The Auxiliary Force, therefore, was not to be arrested
in its formation, but it was to be maintained at the
Company’s expense. Intimation to this effect was
given to the King in a letter from the Governor-
General, which, after acquainting his Majesty that
the British Government had detetmined to relieve
him of a burden which, in the existing state of the
coimtry, might have imposed heavier exactions on
the people than they were well able to bear, ex-
pressed a strong” hope that the King would see, m
the relaxation of this demand, good reason for apply-
ing his surplus revenueS 'firs% to the relief , of op-

ABKOGATION OB THE TREATY.

129

pressive {fixation, and, secondly, to the prosecution
of useful public -works. But nothing was said, in
this letter, about the abrogation of the entire treaty,
nor was it desired that the Resident, in his con-
ferences -with the King or his minister, should say
anything on that subject. The Governor-General,
still hoping that the Home Government might be in-
duced to consent to the terms of the treaty (the con-
dition of the auxiliary force alone excluded), ab-
stained from an acknowledgment which, he believed,
would weaken the authority of his Government. But
this was a mistake, and worse than a mistake. It
betrayed an absence of moral courage not easily to
be justified or forgiven. The Home Government
never acknowledged the validity of any later treaty
than that which Lord "Wellesley had negotiated at
the commencement of the century.

Such is the history of the treaty of 1837. It was
never carried out in a single particular, and seldom
heard of again until after a lapse of nearly twenty
years, except in a collection of treaties into which it
crept by naistake.* And, for some time, indeed,

^ Mucli was attempted to be the Commissioners for the affairs of
made out of this circumstauce — ^but India. (Signed) " E. Gordok.
the mistake of an under Secretary "India Board, 3rd July,. 1838.”

cannot give validity to a treaty It must, however, be admitted, on
which the highest authorities refused the other hand, that, years after
to ratify. If Lord Auckland was un- this date, even in the Lucknow
willing to declare the nullity of the Eesidency, the treaty was held to be
treaty because its nullification hurt valid. In October, 1853, Colonel
the pride of his Government, the Sleeman wrote to Sir James Hogg ;
Home Government showed no such "The treaty of 1837 gives our Go-
unwillingness, for, in 1838, tlie fol- vernment ample authority to take
lowing return was made to Parlia- the whole administration on our-
ment, under the signature of one of selves.” And again, in 1854 j, to
the Secretaries of the Board of Con- Colonel Low : “ Our Government
trol : would be fully authorised at any

"There has been no treaty con- time to enforce the penalty pre-
yed with thepresent King of Oude, scribed in your treaty of 1837”
'h has been ratified by the Court This was doubly a mistake. The
•ectors, with the approbation bf treaty was certainly not Low’s.

183 &.

130 THE JLDMnnSTRATION OF LOED DALHOUSIE.

183846. little was heard of Oude itself. A Native State is
never so near to death, hut that it may become quite
hale and lusty again when the energies and activities
of the British are engrossed by a foreign war. Now,
it happened that, for some time to come, the British
had quite a crop of foreign wars. First, the great
Afghanistan war of Auckland, which made him
wholly forgetful of Oude — her People and her King
— ^her sorrows and her sensualities. Then there was
the Sindh war of Ellenborough, intended to wash out
by a small victory the stain of a great defeat, but
fixing a stiU deeper stain upon the character of the
nation ; and next the fiierce Mahratta onslaught, which
followed closely upon it. Then there was the inva-
sion from beyond the Sutlej, and the first Sikh war,
in which Hardinge was most reluctantly immersed.
Altogether, some eight years of incessant war, with a
prospect of further strife, kept the sword out of the
scabbard and the portfolio out of the hand. Then
Oude was safe in its insignificance and obscurity.
Moreover, Oude was, as before, loyal and sympa-
thising, and, although the hoardings of Saadut Ali
had long since been squandered, there was still
money in the Treasure-chests of Lucknow. But
peace came, and with it a new birth of danger to the
rulers of that misruled province. There had been no
change for the better; nay, rather there had been
change for the worse, during the years of our con-
flicts beyond the frontier. One Prince had succeeded
another only to emulate the vices of his ancestors with
certain special variations of his own. And when
Lord Hardinge, in the quiet interval between the two
18 Sikh wars, turned his thoughts towards the kingdom
of Oude, he found Wajid Ali Shah, then a young
man in the first year of his reign, giving foul pro

LORD HARDINGE’s WARNINGS. 131

mise of sustaining the character of the Eoyal 18-17.
House.*

"With the same moderation as had been shown by
Lord William Bentinck, hut also with the same
strong sense of the paramount duty of the British
Government to arrest the disorders which had so
long been preying upon the vitals of the country,

Lord Hardinge lifted up his voice in earnest remon-
strance and solemn warning ; and the young King
cowered beneath the keen glance of the clear blue
eyes that were turned upon him. There were no
vague words in that admonition ; no uncertain sound
in their utterance. Wajid Ali Shah was distinctly
told that the clemency of the British Government
would allow him two years of grace ; hut that if at
the end of that period of probation there were no
manifest signs of improvement, the British Govern-
ment could, in the interests of humanity, no longer
righteously abstain from interfering peremptorily and
absolutely for the introduction of a system of admi-
nistration calculated to restore order and prosperity to
the kingdom of Oude. The discretionary power had
years before been placed in the hands of the Governor-
General, and these admonitions failing, it would as-
suredly be exercised. A general outline of the means,
by which the administration might be reformed, was
laid down in a memorandum read aloud to the King ;
and it was added that, if his Majesty cordially en-
tered into the plan, he might have the satisfaction,

♦There was something in the hope of an improved administration,
number seven fatal to the Princes of But, eajias: imperii nisi imperasset, he
Oude. Ghazee-ood-deen Hyder died was, for all purposes of government,
in 1837 ; Nussur-ood-deen in 1837 ; as incompetent as his predecessors,
and Umjid Ali Shah in 1847. The His besetting infirmity was avarice,
last named succeeded, in 1842, the and he seemed to care for nothing
old King, whom we had set up, and so long as’ the treasure-chest was
from whose better character there fall,
appeared at one time to be some

K 2

132 THE ADMIOTSTEATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1847. witMn the specified period of - two years, of checking
and eradicating the worst abuses, and, at the same
time, of maintaining his own authority and the native
institutions of his kingdom unimpaired — but that if
he should adhere to his old evil ways, he must bo
prepared for the alternative and its consequences.

Nervous and excitable at all times, and greatly
affected by these words, the King essayed to speak ;
hut the power of utterance had gone from him. So
he took a sheet of paper and wrote upon it, that he
thanked the Governor-General, and would regard his
counsels as though they had been addressed by a
father to his son. There axe no counsels so habitually
disregarded; the King, therefore, kept his word.
Relieved from the presence of the Governor-General
his agitation subsided, and he betook himself, without
a thought of the future, to his old courses. Fiddlers
and dancers, singing men and eunuchs, were suffered
to usurp the government and to absorb the revenues
of the country. The evil influence of these vile
panders and parasites was felt throughout all condi-
tions of society and in all parts of the country. Sunk
in the uttermost abysses of enfeebling debauchery,
the King pushed aside the business which he felt
himself incapable of transacting, and went in search
of new pleasures. Stimulated to the utmost by un-
natural excitements, his appetites were satiated by
the debaucheries of the Zenana, and, with an under-
standing emasculated to the point of childishness, he
turned to the more harmless delights of dancing, and
dru mm ing, and drawing, and manufacturing small
rh3rmes. Had he devoted himself to these pursuits
in private fife, there would have been small harm in
them, but overjoyed with his success as a musician,
he went about the crowded streets of Lucknow with

EEPIllEVE FOR. WAJID ALL 133

a big drum round his neck, striking as much noise 1849.
out of it as he could, with all the extravagance of
childish delight.

The two years of probation had passed away, and
the British Resident reported that “the King had
not, since the Governor-General’s visit in October,

1847, shown any signs of being fully aware of the
responsibility he incurred.” “ In fact,” he added, “ I
do not think that his Majesty can ever be brought to
feel the responsibilities of sovereignty strongly enough
to be induced to bear that portion of the burden of its
duties that must necessarily devolve upon him; he will
always confide it to the worthless minions who are
kept for his amusements, and enjoy exclusively his
society and his confidence.” So the time had arrived
when the British Government might have righteously
assumed the administration of Oude. The King had
justly incurred the penalty, but the paramount power
was in no haste to inflict it. Lord Dalhousie was
Governor-General of India; but again the external
conflicts of the British were the salvation of the sove-
reignty of Oude. The Punjab was in flames, and once
more Lucknow was forgotten. The conquest of the
Sikhs; the annexation of their country; the new
Burmese war and its results; the lapses of which I
have spoken in my last chapter; and many impor-
tant affairs of internal administration of which I have
yet to speak, occupied the ever-active mind of Lord
Dalhousie untU. the last year of his reign ; but it was
felt by every one, who knew and pondered over the
wretched state of the country, that the day of reckon-
ing was approaching, and that the British Govern-
ment could not much longer shrink from the
performance of a duty imposed upon it by every
consideration of humanity.

134 THE ADMmiSTRATION OF LOED DALEOOSIE.

1819 - 50 .

Colonel Sleeman -was then Eesident at Lucknow.
He was a man of a liberal and humane nature, tho-
roughly acquainted with the character and feelings,
the institutions and usages of the people of India.
No man had a larger toleration for the short-comings
of native Governments, because no one knew better
how much our own political system had aggravated,
if they had not produced, the evils of which we most
complained. But he sympathised at the same time
acutely with the sufferings of the people living under
those native Governments; and S 3 mapathy over-
came his toleration. Having lived aU his adult life
in India — ^the greater part of it in, or on the borders
of, the Native States — ^he was destitute of aU over-
weening prepossessions in favour of European insti-
tutions and the “ blessings of British rule.” But the
more he saw, on the spot, of the terrible effects of the
misgovernment of Oude, the more convinced he was
of the paramount duty of the British Government to
step in and arrest the atrocities which were converting
one of the finest provinces of India into a moral pest-
house. In 1849 and 1850 he made a tour through
the interior of the country. He carried with him the
prestige of a name second to none in India, as that
of a friend of the poor, a protector of the weak, and
a redresser of their wrongs. Conversing freely and
familiarly in the native languages, and knowing w'eU
the character and the feelings of the people, he had a
manner that inspired confidence, and the art of ex-
tracting from every man the information which he was
best able to afford. During this tour in the interior,
he noted down, from day to day, all the most striking
facts which were brought to his notice, with the re-
flections which were suggested by them; and the
whole presented a revolting picture of the worst type

COLOm SLEEMAif.

135

of misrule — of a feebleness worse than despotism, of 1850.
an apatby more productive of human suffering than
the worst forms of tyrannous activity. In the absence
of aU controlling authority, the strong carried on
everywhere a war of extermination against the weak.
Powerful families, waxing gross on outrage and rapine,
built forts, collected followers, and pillaged and mur-
dered at discretion, without fear of justice overtaking
their crimes. Nay, indeed, the greater the criminal
the more sure he was of protection, for he could pur-
chase immunity with his spoil. There was hardly,
indeed, an atrocity committed, from one end of the
country to the other, that was not, directly or indi-
rectly, the result of the profligacy and corruption of
the Court.*

Such was Colonel Sleeman’s report of the state of
the Oude country ; such was his account of what he
had seen with his own eyes or heard with his own
ears. There was not a man in the Two Services who
was more distressed by the fury for annexation which

* “ The Talookdars keep the
country in a perpetual state of dis-
turbance, and render life, property,
and industry, everywhere insecure.
Whenever they quarrel with each
other, or with the local authorities
of the Government, from whatever
cause, they take to indiscriminate
plunder and murder — over all lands
not held by men of the same class —
no road, town, village, or hamlet, is
secure from their merciless attacks
— ^robbery and murder become their
diversion, their sport, and they think
no more of taking the lives of men,
women, and children, who never
offended them, than those of deer
and wild hogs. They not only rob
and murder, but seize, confine, and
torture all whom they seize, and
suppose to have money or credit, till
they ransom themselves with all they
have, or can beg or borrow. Hardly

a day has passed since I left Luck-
now, in which I have not had abun-
dant proof of numerous atrocities of
this kind committed by landholders
within the district through which I
was passing, year by year, np to the
present day.” And again ; “ It is
worthy of remark that these great
landholders, who have recently ac-
quired their possessions by the plun-
der and the murder of their weaker
neighbours, and who continue their
system of plunder in order to ac-
quire the means to maintain their
gangs and add to their possessions,
are those who are most favoured at
Court, and most conciliated by the
local rulers, because they are more
able and more willing to pay for the
favour of the one wd set at defiance
the authority of the othe?:.”— /S5fe^-
maris Diary,

136 THE ADMINISTEATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1852. was at that time breaking out in the most influential
public prints and the highest official circles. He saw
clearly the danger into which this grievous lust of
dominion was hurrying us, and he made a great efibrt
to arrest the evil;* but he lifted up a warning voice
in vain. The letters which he addressed to the Go-
vernor-General and to the Chairman of the East India
Company appear to have produced no effect. He did
not see clearly, at that time, that the principles which
he held in such abhorrence were cherished by Lord
Dalhousie himself, and he did not know that the Court
of Directors had such faith in their Governor-General
that they were content to substitute his principles for
their own. But, utterly distasteful to him as were the
then prevailing sentiments in favour of absorption and
confiscation, Sleeman never closed his eyes against the
fact that interference in the affairs of Oude, even to
the extent of the direct assumption of the government,
would be a righteous interference. Year after year he
had pressed upon the Governor-General the urgent
necessity of the measure. But, perhaps, had he known
in what manner his advice was destined to be followed,
and how his authority would be asserted in justifica-

* See Sleeman’s Correspondence, dangerous to our ruie in India, and
passim. Exempli gratia: “In Sep- prejudicial to the best interests of
tember, 1848, 1 took the liberty to the country. The people see that
mention to your Lordship my fears these annexations and confiscations
that the system of ^nnex.ing and go on, and that rewards and honorary
absorbing Native States — so popular distinctions are given for them and
with our Indian Services, and so for the victories which lead to them,
much advocated by a certain class and for little else ; and they are too
of writers in public journals — ^might apt to infer that they are systematic
some day render us too visibly de- and encouraged and prescribed from
pendent upon our Native Army ; that home. The Native States I consider
they might see it, and that accidents to be breakwaters, and when they
might occur to unite them, or too are all swept away we shall be left
great a portion of them, in some des- to the mercy of our Native Army,
perate act.” — {Colonel Sleeman to which may not always be sufficiently
Lord Dalhousie, April, 1852.) And under our control.” — Colonel Sleeman
again : “ I deem such doctrines to be to Sir James Hogg, January, 18515.

SLEEMAX’S WARNINGS.

137

tion of an act whicli he could never countenance, he 1852.
would rather have suffered the feehle-minded de-
bauchee who was called King of Oude stiE to remain
in undisturbed possession of the throne, than have
uttered a word that might hasten a measure so at
variance with his sense of justice, and so injurious as
h ought to our best interests, as that of which
the interference of Government eventuaEy took the
shape.

Sleeman’s advice had been clear, consistent, unmis-
takable. “Assume the administration,” he said, “but
do not grasp the revenues of the country.” Some
years before the same advice had been given by Henry
Lawrence,* between whom and Sleeman there was
much concord of opinion and some similitude of cha-
racter. The private letters of the latter, addressed
to the highest Indian functionaries, and, therefore,
having aU the weight and authority of pubEc docu-
ments, were as distinct upon this point as the most
emphatic words could make them. “ What the people
want, and most earnestly pray for,” he wrote to the
Governor-General, “is that our Government should
take upon itself the responsibihty of governing them
weU and permanently. AE classes, save the knaves,
who now surround and govern the King, earnestly
pray for this — ^the educated classes, because they would
then have a chance of respectable employment, which
none of them now have ; the middle classes, because
they find no protection or encouragement, and no
hope that their children wiE be permitted to inherit

* ‘‘Let tlie management,” he said, (The italics are Lawrence’s.) “Let
“ be assumed under some such rules Oude be at last governed, not for one
as those which were laid down by man, the King, but for him and his
Lord William Bentinck. Let the people .” — Calcutta Bemew, vol. iii.
administration of the country, as far (1845) ; and Lawrence’s Essays, p.
as possible, be native. Let not a 133.
rujpee come into the Comjfian^^s coffers” ■ -

138 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1853. the property they leave, not invested in our Govern-
ment Securities; and the humbler classes, because
they are now abandoned to the merciless rapacity of
the starving troops and other public establishments,
and of the landholders driven or invited to rebellion
by the present state of misrule.” But he added : “ I
believe that it is your Lordship’s wish that the whole
of the revenues of Oude should be expended for the
benefit of the Royal Family and People of Oude, and
that the British Government should disclaim any wish
to derive any pecuniary advantage from assuming to
itself the administration,” And again, about the same
time, he had written to the Chairman of the Court of
Directors, urging the expediency of assuming the ad-
ministration, but adding ; “ If we do this, we must, in
order to stand well with the rest of India, honestly
and distinctly disclaim aU interested motives, and
appropriate the whole of the revenues for the benefit
of the People and Royal Family of Oude. If we do
this, all India will think us right.” And again, a few
months later, writing to the same high authority, he
said, mournfully and prophetically, that to annex and
confiscate the country, and to appropriate the reve-
nues to ourselves, would “be most profitable in a
pecuniary view, but most injurious in a political one.
It would tend to accelerate the crisis which the doc-
trines of the absorbing school must sooner or later
bring upon us.”*

Such was the counsel Sleem^ gave ; such were the
warnings he uttered. But he did not remain in India,
nay, indeed he did not live, to see his advice ignored,
his cautions disregarded. After long years of arduous
and honourable service, compelled to retire in broken

* Private correspondence of Sir of the English edition of liis " Diary
W. H. Sleeman, printed at the end in Onde.’^

JAMES OUTEAM.

139

health, from his post, he died on his homeward voyage,
leaving behind him a name second to none upon the
roll of the benefactors and civilisers of India, for he
had grappled with her greatest abomination, and had
effectually subdued it. Some solace had it been to
him when he turned his back upon the country to
know that his place would be well and worthily filled.
“ Had your Lordship left the choice of a successor to
me,” he wrote to the Governor-General, “I should
have pointed out Colonel Outram ; and I feel very
much rejoiced that he has been selected for the office,
and I hope he wiU come as soon as possible.”

An officer of the Company’s army on the Bombay
establishment, James Outram had done good service
to his country, good service to the people of India,
on many different fields of adventure ; and had risen,
not without much sore travail and sharp contention,
to a place in the estimation of his Government and
the affections of his eomrades, from which he could
afford to look down upon the conflicts of the Past
with measureless calmness and contentment. Versed
alike in the stem severities of war and the civilising
humanities of peace, he was ready at a moment’s
notice to lead an army into the field or to superintend
the government of a province. But it was in rough
soldier’s work, or in that stiU rougher work of mingled
war and diplomacy which falls to the share of the Po-
litical officer in India, that Outram’s great and good
qualities were most conspicuously displayed. Por in
him, with courage of the highest order, with mascu-
line energy and resolution, were combined the gentle-
ness of a woman and the simplicity of a child. Ho
man knew better how to temper power with mercy
and forbearance, and to combat intrigue and perfidy
with pure sincerity and stainless truth. This truth-

1853.

Thuggee.

Septemhei^

1854.

140 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALEOOSIE,

1854 .

fulness was, indeed, perhaps the most prominent, as it
was the most perilous, feature of his character. Whatso-
ever he might do, whatsoever he might say, the whole
was there before you in its full proportions. He wore
his heart upon his sleeve, and was incapable of con-
cealment or disguise. A pure sense of honour, a
strong sense of justice, the vehement assertions of
which no self-interested discretion could hold in re-
straint, brought him sometimes into collision with
others, and immersed him in a sea of controversy.
But although, perhaps, in his reverential love of
truth, he was over-eager to fight down what he might
have been well content to live down, and in after life
he may have felt that these wordy battles were very
little worth fighting, he had stiE no cause to regret
them, for he came unhurt from the conflict. It was
after one of these great conflicts, the growth of serious
official strife, which had sent him from an honourable
post into still more honourable retirement, that, re-
turning to India with strong credentials from his
masters in LeadenhaE-street, Lord Dalhousie selected
him to succeed Sleeman as Resident at Lucknow.

The choice was a wise one. There was work to he
done which required a hand at once gentle and strong.
The fame of Outram was not the fame of a spoliator,
hut of a just man friendly to the native Princes and
chiefs of India, who had lifted up his voice against
wrongs done to them in his time, and who would
rather have closed his puhEc career than have been
the agent of an unrighteous policy. But a measure
which Low, and Sleeman, and Henry Lawrence had
approved, nay, which in the interests of humanity
they had strenuously recommended, was Ettle Ekely
to he an unrighteous one, and Outram, whEst re-
joicing that his past career had thus been stamped by

octeam’s report. 141

Hs Government with the highest practical approval,
accepted the offer in the full assurance that he could
fulfil its duties without a stain upon his honour or a
burden upon his conscience.*

Making all haste to join his appomtment, Outram
quitted Aden, where the summons reached him, and
took ship for Calcutta, where he arrived in the first
month of the cold season. His instructions were soon November,
prepared for him ; they were brief, but they suggested
the settled resolution of Government to wait no longer
for impossible improvements from within, but at once
to shape their measures for the assertion, in accord-
ance with Treaty, of the authority of the Para-
mount State. But it was not a thing to be done in a
hurry. The measure itself was to be deliberately
carried out after certain preliminary formalities of
inquiry and reference. It was Outram’s part to
inquire. A report upon the existing state of Oude
was called for from the new Resident, and before the
end of March it was forwarded to Calcutta. It was 1855.
an elaborate history of the misgovernment of Oude
from the commencement of the century, a dark cata-
logue of crime and suffering “ caused by the culpable
apathy of the Sovereign and the Durbar.” “ I have
shown,” said the new Resident, in conclusion, “ that
the affairs of Oude still continue in the same state, if
not worse, in which Colonel Sleeman from time to time
described them to be, and that the improvement which
Lord Hardinge peremptorily demanded, seven years
ago, at the han^ of the King, in pursuance of the
Treaty of 1801, has not, in any degree, been effected.

And I have no hesitation in declaring my opinion,

• I speak, of course, of tke mere in{' out the measure had not then
fact of the assumption of the ad*- been decided,
ministration. The manner of carry-

142

THE ADMINISTEATION OF LOED DALHOUSIE.

1855. therefore, that the duty imposed on the British Go-
vernment by that treaty, cannot any longer admit of
our ‘honestly indulging the reluctance which the Go-
vernment of India has felt heretofore to have recourse
to those extreme measures which alone can he of any
real efficiency in remedying the evils from which the
state of Oude has suffered so long.’ ”

To this report, and to much earlier information of
the same kind with which the archives of Government
were laden, the Governor-General gave earnest and
sustained attention amidst the refreshing quiet of the
Blue Mountains of Madras. The weighty document
had picked up, on its road through Calcutta, another
stUl more weighty, in the shape of a minute written
by General Low. Few as were the words, they ex-
hausted all the arguments in favour of intervention,
and clothed them with the authority of a great name.
No other name could have invested them with this
authority, for no other man had seen so much of the
evils of native rule in Oude, and no man was on
principle more averse to the extinction of the native
dynasties of India. All men must have felt the case
to be very bad when John Low, who had spoken the
brave words in defence of the Princes and chiefs of
India which I have cited in the last chapter, was
driven to the forcible expression of his conviction
that it was the paramount duty of the British Go-
vernment to interfere at once for the protection of
the people of Oude.*

^ Low said that he was in favour matically disref^ardin^ our advice,
of interference, "because the public instead of following it, or even en-
and shameful oppressions committed deavouring to follow it ; because we
on the people b;^ Grovernment officers are bound by Treaty (quite _;ifferent
in Oude have of late years been con- in that respect from our. position re-
stant and extreme; because the King latively to most of the great Native
of Oude has continually, during many States) to prevent serious interior
years, broken the Treaty by syste- misrule in Oude ; because it has

LORD DALHOUSIE’s MmUTE.

143

It was not possible to add much in the way of fact 1855.
to what Outram had compiled, or much in the way of
argument to what Low had written. But Dalhousie,
to whom the fine bracing air of the Neilgherries had
imparted a new-born capacity for sustained labour,
sat himself down to review the whole question in a
gigantic minute. He signed it on the 18th June j and,
indeed, it was his Waterloo — ^the crowning victory of
annexation. It is not necessary to repeat the facts,
for I have stated them, or the arguments, for I have
suggested them. No reader can have followed me
thus far, without a strong assurance on his mind that
it would have been a grievous wrong done to hu-
manity to have any longer abstained from inter-
ference. But what was the interference to be? Here
was a question for the Governor-General to solve in
the invigorating atmosphere of Ootacamund — a ques-
tion, the solution of which was to yield the crowning
measure of his long vice-regal career.

There may have been many ways of working out
the practical details of this measure ; but there was
only one uncertain point which was of much substan-
tial importance. All men agreed that the Treaty of
1801 might rightfully be declared to have ceased by
reason of repeated violations, and that with the con-
sent of the King, if attainable, or without it, if unat-
tainable, the Government of the country might be
transferred to the hands of European administrators.

That the King must be reduced to a mere cypher was

been fully proved that we have not to these pungent sentences an ex-
prevented it, and that we cannot ]>ression of opinion that the un-
prevent it by the present mode of iuKiUed threats of Lord Hardinge
conducting our relations with that had increased the evil, inasmucli as
State ; and because no man of com- that they had produced an impres-
mon sense can entertain the smallest sion in Oude that the Indian Go-
expectation that the present King of vemment were restrained from inter-
Oude can ever become an efficient ference by the orders of higher
•ruler of his country*’' And he added authority at home.

144 THE ADMINISTEATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

iSSiS. certain ; it was certain that all possible respect ought
to be shown to him in his fallen fortunes, and that he
and all his family ought to be splendidly endowed ;
no question could well be raised upon these points.
The question was, what was to be done with the
surplus revenue after paying all the expenses of ad-
ministration ? Just and wise men, as has been shown,
had protested against the absorption of a single rupee
into the British Treasury. They said that it would
be as politic as it would be righteous, to demonstrate
to all the States and Nations of India, that we had
not deposed the King of Oude for our own benefit —
that we had done a righteous act on broad principles
of humanity, by which we had gained nothing. But
Lord Dalhousie, though he proposed not to annex
the country, determined to take the revenues.

It is not very easy to arrive at a just conception of
his views : “ The reform of the administration,” he
said, “may be wrought, and the prosperity of the
people may be secured, without resorting to so extreme
a measure as the annexation of the territory and the
abolition of the throne. I, for my part, therefore, do
not recommend that the province of Oude should be
declared to be British territory.” But he proposed
that the King of Oude, whilst retaining the sove-
reignty of his dominions, should “vest all power,
jurisdiction, rights and claims thereto belonging, in
the hands of the East India Company,” and that the
surplus revenues should be at the disposal of the
Company. What this territorial sovereignty was to
he, without territorial rights or territorial revenues,
it is not easy to see. When the Newab of the Carnatic
ctd the Bajah of Tanjore were deprived of tbeiT
right*i and revenues, they were held to be not terri-
torial, but titular soverrigns. The Nizam, on the

DAIHOUSIE’S VIEWS.

145

other hand, might properly he described as “ terri-
torial sovereign” of the Assigned Districts, although
the administration had been taken from him, because
an account of the revenue was to be rendered to him,
and the surplus was to be paid into his hands. But
the King of Oude, in DaUiousie’s scheme, was to have
had no more to do with his territories, than the
titular sovereigns of the Carnatic and Tanjore; and
yet he was to be told that he was “ to retain the so-
vereignty of all the territories” of which he was then
in possession.

Strictly interpreted to the letter, the scheme did not
suggest the annexation of Oude. The province was
not to be incorporated with the British dominions.
The revenues were to be kept distinct from those of the
empire ; there was to be a separate balance-sheet ; and
thus far the province was to have a sort of integrity of
its own. This is sufficiently intelligible in itself ; and,
if the balance being struck, the available surplus had
been payable to the King of Oude, the rest of the
scheme would have been intelligible also, for there
would have been a quasi-sovereignty of the territories
thus administered still remaining with the King. But
the balance being payable into the British Treasury,
it appears that Oude, in this state of financial isola-
tion, would still have substantially been British ter-
ritory, as much as if it had become a component part
of the empire. Again, under the proposed system,
Oude would have been beyond the circle of our
ordinary legislation, in which respect it would not
have differed much from other “ Kon-Regulation Pro-
vinces ;” and if it had, even this Legislative segregation
superadded to the Financial isolation of which I have
spoken, would not have made it any the less British
tOTitory. The Channel Islands have a separate

1835

146 THE ADMINISTEITION OF LOED DAIJEIOUSIE.

1855 Budget and distinct laws of their own, but stUl they
are component parts of the British Empire, althougn
they do not pay their surplus into the British
Treasury. But in everything that really constitutes
Kingship, the Bailiff of Jersey is as much the terri-
torial sovereign of that island as Wajid Ali would
have been territorial sovereign of Oude under Lord
Dalhousie’s programme of non-annexation.

But this transparent disguise was not to be worn ;
this distinction without a difference was not to be
asserted, anywhere out of Lord Dalhousie’s great
Minute. The thing that was to be done soon came
to take its proper place in the Councils of the Indian
Empire as the Annexation of Oude ; and it was as
the annexation of Oude that the measure was con-
sidered by the Government at home. The Court of
Directors consented to the annexation of Oude. The
Board of Control consented to the annexation of
Oude. The British Cabinet consented to the annexa-
tion of Oude. The word was not then, as it since
has been, freely used in official documents, but it was
in aU men’s minds, and many spoke it out bluntly
instead of talking delicately about “assuming the
Government of the Country.” And, whether right or
wrong, the responsibility of the measure rested as
much with the Queen’s Ministers as with the Merchant
Company. That the Company had for long years
shown great forbearance is certain. They had hoped
against hope, and acted against aU experience. So
eager, indeed, had they been to give the native
Princes of India a fair trial, that they had disallowed
the proposed treaty of 1837, and had pronounced
an authoritative opinion in favour of the main-
tenance of the then existing Native States of India.
But twenty more years of misrule and anarchy had

OEDEES EEOM HOIIE.

147

raised in their minds a feeling of wondering self- Mlfc
reproach at the thought of their own patience ; and
when they responded to the reference from Calcutta,
they said that the doubt raised by a survey of the
facts before them, was not whether it was then in-
cumbent upon them to free themselves from the re-
sponsibility of any longer upholding such a Govern-
ment, but whether they could excuse themselves for
not having, many years before, performed so impera-
tive a duty.

The despatch of the Court of Directors was signed NoTemijerl9
in the middle of November. At midnight on the
2nd of January, the Governor-General mastered its
contents. Had he thought of himself more than of
his country he would not have been there at that
time. The energies of his mind were undimmed ; but
climate, and much tod, and a heavy sorrow weighing
on his heart, had shattered a frame never constitu-
tionally robust, and aU men said that he was “ break-
ing.” Without any fadure of duty, without any
imputation on his zeal, he might have left to his
successor the ungrateful task of turning into stem
realities the oft-repeated menaces of the British
rulers who had gone before him. But he was not
one to shrink from the performance of such a task
because it was a painful and unpopular one. He
believed that by no one could the duty of bringing
the Oude Government to solemn account be so fitly
discharged as by one who had watched for seven
years the accumulation of its offences, and seen the
measure of its guilt filled to the brim. He had inti-
mated, therefore, to the Court of Directors his wd-
linornftcts to remain at his post to discharge this duty,
and in the despatch, which he read in the quiet of
that January night, he saw on official record the

X. 2

148

THE ADMINISTIIATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1856 . alacrity ■with which his offer was accepted, and he
^rded himself for the closing act of his long and
eventful administration.*

Next morning he summoned a Council. It was
little more than a form. Dalhousie had waited for
the authoritative sanction of the Home Grovemment ;
but he knew that sanction was coming, and he was
prepared for its arrival. The greater part of the
work had, indeed, been already done. The instruc-
tions to he sent to the Resident; the treaty to be
proposed to the King ; the proclamation to be issued
to the people had all been drafted. The whole
scheme of internal government had been matured,
and the agency to be employed had been carefully
considered. The muster-roll of the new administra-
tion was ready, and the machinery was complete.
The system was very closely to resemble that which
had been tried with such good success in the Punjab,
and its agents were, as in that province, to be a
mixed body of civil and military officers, under a
Chief Commissioner. All the weighty documents, by
Avhich the revolution was to be effected, were in the
Portfolio of the Foreign Secretary ; and now, at this
meeting of the Council, they were formally let loose
to do their work.

The task which Outram was commissioned to per-
form was a difficult, a delicate, and a painful one.
He was to endeavour to persuade the Kin g of Oude
formally to abdicate his sovereign functions, and to
make over, by a solemn treaty, the government of
his territories to the East India Company. In the
event of his refusal, a proclamation was to be issued,
declaring the whole of Oude to be British territoiy.

* The Court of Directors to the Government of Indian November 19,
1855. Paragraph 19.

a:s^nexation.

149

By a man of Outram’s humane and generous nature
no counsel from his Government was needed to
induce him to do the work entrusted to him in the
manner least likely to wound the feelings of the King.
But it was right that such counsel should be given.
It was given ; hut the decree of the Paramount State,
tempered as it might be by outward courtesy of man-
ner, was still to be carried out, with stern and reso-
lute action. No protests, no remonstrances, no pro-
mises, no prayers were to be suffered to arrest the
retributive measure for a day. It need not be added
that no resistance could avert it. A body of British
troops, suficient to trample down all possible opposi-
tion, had been moved up into a position to overawe
Lucknow, and for the doomed Government of Oude
to attempt to save itself by a display of force would
have been only to court a most useless butchery.

Outram received his instructions at the end of
January. On the last day of the month he placed
himself* in communication with the Oude Minister,
clearly stated the orders of the British Government,
and said that they were final and decisive. Four
days were spent in preliminary formalities and nego-
tiations. In true Oriental fashion, the Court endea-
voured to gain time, and, appealing to Outram,
through the aged Queen Mother — a woman with far
more of masculine energy and resolution than her
son — ^importuned him to persuade his Government to
give the King another trial, to wait for the arrival
of the new Governor- General, to dictate to Wajid Ali
any reforms to be carried out in his name. All this had
been expected; all this provided for. Outram had
but one answer ; the day of trial, the day of forbear-
ance was past. All that he could now do was to
deliver his message to the King.

1856.

150

THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHODSIE.

1856. On the 4th of February, Wajid Ali announced
his willingness to receive the British Resident; and
Outram, accompanied by his lieutenants, Hayes and
Weston, proceeded to the palace. Strange and sig-
nificant symptoms greeted them as they went. The
guns at the palace-gates were dismounted. The pa-
lace-guards were unarmed. The guard of honour,
who should have presented arms to the Resident,
saluted him only with their hands. Attended by his
brother and a few of his confidential Ministers, the
King received the English gentlemen at the usual
spot ; and after the wonted ceremonies, the business
conunenced. Outram presented to the King a letter
from the Governor-General, which contained, in terms
of courteous explanation, the sentence that had been
passed upon him, and urged him not to resist it. A
draft of the proposed treaty was then placed in his
hands. He received it with a passionate burst of
grief, declared that treaties were only between equals;
that there was no need for him to sign it, as the
British would do with him and his possessions as
they pleased ; they had taken his honour and his
country, and he would not ask them for the means
of maintaining his life. All that he sought was per-
mission to proceed to England, and cast himself and
his sorrows at the foot of the Throne. Nothing could
move him from his resolution not to sign the treaty.
He uncovered his head; placed his turban in the
hands of the Resident, and sorrowfully declared that
title, rank, honour, everything were gone ; and that
now the British Government, which had made his
grandfather a King, might reduce him to nothing,
and consign him to obscurity.

In this exaggerated display of helplessness there
was something too characteristically Oriental for any

ANNEXATION.

151

part of it to be assigned to European prompting. But
if the scene had been got up expressly for an English
audience, it could not have been more cimningly con-
trived to increase the appearance of harshness and
cruelty -with which the friends of the King were pre-
pared to invest the act of dethronement. No man
was more likely than Outram to have been doubly
pained, in the midst of aU his painful duties, by the
unmanly prostration of the King. To deal harshly
with one who declared himself so feeble and defence-
less, was like striking a woman or a cripple. But
five millions of people were not to be given up, from
generation to generation, to suffering and sorrow,
because an effeminate Prince, when told he was no
longer to have the power of inflicting measurdess
wrongs on his country, burst into tears, said that he
was a miserable wretch, and took off his turban in-
stead of taking out his sword.

There was nothing now left for Outram but to
issue a proclamation, prepared for him in Calcutta,
declaring the province of Oude to be thenceforth, for
ever, a component part of the British Indian Empire.
It went forth to the people of Oude ; and the people
of Oude, without a murmur, accepted their new
masters. There were no popular risings. Not a
blow was struck in defence of the native dynasty of
Oude. The whole population went over quietly to
their new rulers, and the .country, for a time, was
outwardly more tranquil than before.

This was the last act of Lord Dalhousie’s Ministry.
When he placed the Portfolio of Government in the
hands of Lord Canning, the British officers to whojn
had been entrusted the work of reforming the ad-
ministration of Oude, were discharging their pre-
scribed duties with an energy which seemed to

1S5C.

152 THE ADMimSTEATIOH OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1856. promise the happiest results. The King was still
obstinate and sullen. He persisted in refusing to
sign the treaty or to accept the proposed stipend of
£120,000 twelve lakhs ; and though he had thought better of
the idea of casting himseK at the foot of the British
Throne, he had made arrangements to send his nearest
kindred — ^his mother, his brother, and his son — ^to
England to perform a vicarious act of obeisance,
and to clamour for his rights.

With what result the administration, as copied
closely from the Punjabee system, was wrought out
in detail, will be shown at a subsequent stage of this
narrative. It was thought, as the work proceeded
in quietude and in seeming prosperity, that it was a
great success ; and it gladdened the heart of the
Government in LeadenhaU-street, to think of the
accomplishment of this peaceful revolution. But
that the measure itself made a very bad impression
oh the minds of the people of India, is not to be
doubted ; not because of the deposition of a King
who had abused his powers ; not because of the in-
troduction of a new system of administration for the
benefit of the people ; but because the humanity of
the act was soiled by the profit which we derived
from it ; and to the comprehension of the multitude
it appeared that the good of the people, which we
had vaunted whilst serving ourselves, was nothing
more than a pretext and a sham ; and that we had
simply extinguished one of the few remaining Ma-
homedan States of India that we might add so
many thousands of square miles to our British terri-
tories, and so many millions of rupees to the revenues
of the British Empire in the East. And who, it was
asked, could be safe, if we thus treated one who had
ever been the most faithful of our allies?

EXTKCTION OF THE AEISTOCBACY.

i53

CHAPTER IV.

DESTRUCTION OE THE NATIVE ARISTOCRACY — RETROSPECT OP REVENUE
ADMINISTRATION — THE SETTLEMENT OP THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES —

TEE OUSTING OP THE TALOOKHDARS — RESUMPTION OPERATIONS— TEE
INAM COMMISSION— DECAY OP PRIESTLY POWER— SOCIAL REPORMS—

MORAL AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.

Whilst great principalities were thus being ab- 1806 1S51
sorbed and ancient sovereignties extinguished, a war
of extermination no less fatal, in its effects, but more
noiseless in its operations, was being waged against
the nobility and gentry of the country. The original
proclamation of this war did not emanate from Lord
Dalhousie. The measures by which the native aris-
tocracy were destroyed were not primarily his mea-
sures. It was the policy of the times to recognise
nothing between the Prince and the Peasant j a policy
which owed its birth not tt Dne but to many ; a policy,
the greatest practical exposition of which was the Set-
tlement of the North-West Provinces. It was adopted
in pure good faith and with the most benevolent in-
tentions. It had the sanction of many wise and good
men. It was not the policy by which such statesmen
as John Malcolm, George Clerk, and Henry Law-
rence, sought to govern the people ; but it was sanc-
tified by the genius of John Lawrence, and of the
Gamaliel at whose feet he had sat, the virtuous, pure-
minded James Thomason.

154 THE ADMINISTEATION OF LORD DALHODSIE.

1806 -S 6 . To bring tbe direct autbority of tbe British Go-
vernment to bear upon the great masses of the people,
without the intervention of any powerful section oi
their own countrymen — to ignore, indeed, the exist-
ence of all governing classes but the European officers,
who carried out the behests of that Government —
seemed to be a wise and humane system of protection.
It was intended to shelter the many from the injurious
action of the interests and the passions of the few.
The utter w’-orthlessness of the upper classes was
assumed to he a fact ; and it was honestly believed
that the obliteration of the aristocracy of the land
was the greatest benefit that could be conferred on
the people. And thus it happened that whilst the
native sovereigns of India were one by one bemg
extinguished, the native aristocracy had become well-
nigh extinct.

Doubtless, we started upon a theory sound in the
abstract, intent only on promoting the greatest hap-
piness of the greatest number ; but if we had allowed
ourselves to understand the genius and the institu-
tions of the people, we should have respected the
rights, natural and acquired, of all classes of the com-
munity, instead of working out any abstract theory
of our own. It was in the very nature of things
necessary, inevitable, that the extension of British
rule, followed always by a reconstruction of the ad-
ministration, and a substitution of civil and military
establishments fashioned upon our own models and
composed of our own people, should have deprived
many of the chief people of their official rank and
official emoluments, and cast them adrift upon the
world, either to seek new fields of adventure in the
unabsorbed Native States, or to fester into a disaffected
and dangerous class sullenly biding their time. This

THE TEEEITOEliL NOBIUTT.

155

is an old story ; an old complaint. Half a century
before the time of which I am now writing, it had
been alleged to be one of the main causes of that
national outburst in Southern India known as the
mutiny of Vellore. But this very necessity for the
extinction of the old race of high native functionaries,
often hereditary office-bearers, ought to have ren-
dered us aU the more desirous to perpetuate the
nobility whose greatness was derived from the Land.
It is true that the titles of the landed gentry whom
we found in possession were, in some cases, neither of
very ancient date nor of very unquestionable origin.
But, whatsoever the nature of their tenures, we found
them in the possession of certain rights or privileges
allowed to them by the Governments which we had
supplanted, and our first care should have been to
confirm and secure their enjoyment of them. We
might have done this without sacrificing the rights
of others. Indeed, we might have done it to the full
contentment of the inferior agricultural classes. But
many able English statesmen, especially in Upper
India, had no toleration for any one who might
properly be described as a Native Gentleman. They
had large sympathies and a comprehensive humanity,
but still they could not embrace any other idea of the
Native Gentry of India than that of an institution
to be righteously obliterated for the benefit of the
great mass of the people.

There were two processes by which this depression
of the privileged classes was effected. The one was
known by the name of a Settlement, the other was
called Resumption. It would be out of place here, if
I had the ability, to enter minutely into tiie difficult
question of landed tenures in India. It is an old story
now, that when that clever coxcomb, Victor Jacque-

1806 - 56 ,

180G-56,

Settlement

Operations.

156 TEE ADMINISTIIATION OF LOED DALHOUSIE.

mont, asked Holt Mackenzie to explain to him in a
five minutes’ conversation tke various systems of Land
Revenue obtaining in different parts of tbe country,
tbe experienced civilian replied tbat he had been for
twenty years endeavouring to understand the sub-
j ect and had not m astered it yet. Such a rebuke ought
to be remembered. The little that I have to say on
the subject shall be said with the least possible use of
technical terms, and with the one object of making
the general reader acquainted with the process by
which the substance of the great landholders in Upper
India was diminished by the action of the British
Government.

In the Literature of India the word “ Settlement”
is one of such frequent occurrence, and to the
Indian resident it conveys such a distinct idea, that
there is some danger of forgetting that the general
reader may not be equally conversant with the exact
meaning of the term. It may therefore, perhaps, be
advantageously explained that as the Indian Revenue
is mainly derived from the land, it is of the first im-
portance, on the acquisition of new territory, clearly
to ascertain the persons from whom the Government
dues are to be exacted, and the amount that is payable
by each. We may call it Rent or we may call it
Revenue, it little matters. The adjustment of the
mutual relations between the Government and the
agriculturists was known as the Settlement of the
Revenue. It was an affair of as much vital interest
and concernment to the one as to the other, for to
be charged with the payment of the Revenue was to
be acknowledged as the proprietor of the land.

When we first took possession of the country ceded
by the Newab-Wuzeer of Oude, or conquered £.'om
the Mahrattas, aU sorts of proprietors presented them-

TALOOKHDABEE EIGHTS.

157

selves, and our officers, liaviiig no special theories 1806 - 66 .
and no overriding prejudices, were willing to con-
sider the claims of aU, whether small or great holders,
whom they found in actual possession ; and brief set-
tlements or engagements were made with them, pend-
ing a more thorough investigation of their rights.

There was, doubtless, at first a good deal of ignorance
on our part, and a good deal of wrong-doing and
usurpation on the part of those with whom we were
called upon to deal. But the landed gentry of these
Ceded and Conquered Provinces, though they suf-
fered by the extension of the British Raj, were not
deliberately destroyed by a theory. It was the in-
evitable tendency of our Regulations, especially of
that great Mystery of Iniquity, the Sale Law, and of
the immigration of astute native functionaries from
the Lower Provinces, which inaugurated our rule, to
subvert the supremacy of the old landholders. Under
the system, which we introduced, men who had been
proprietors of vast tracts of country as far as the eye
could reach, shrivelled into tenants of mud-huts and
possessors only of a few cooMng-pots. The process,
though certain in its results, was gradual in its opera-
tion ; and the ruin which it entailed was incidental,
not systematic. It was ignorantly suffered, not deli-
berately decreed. But, at a later period, when a new
political creed had grown up among our British func-
tionaries in India, and upon officers of this new school
devolved the duty of fixing the relations of the agri-
cultural classes with the British Government, the
great besom of the Settlement swept out the remnant
of the landed gentry from their baronial possessions,
and a race of peasant-proprietors were recognised as
the legitimate inheritors of the soil.

How this happened may be briefly stated. A Per-

158 THE ADMINISTEATIOH OF LOED DALHOUSIE.

1806-56. manent Settlement on the Bengal model had been
talked of, ordered and counter-ordered; but for nearly
a third part of a century, under a series of brief
engagements with holders of diiferent kinds, uncer-
tainty and confusion prevailed, injurious both to the
Government and to the People. But in the time
1833. of Lord William Bentinck an order went forth for
the revision of this system or no-system, based upon
a detailed survey and a clearly recorded definition of
rights, and what is known in History as the Settle-
ment of the North-West Provinces, was then formally
commenced.

That it was benevolentiy designed and consci-
entiously executed, is not to be doubted. But it was
marred by a Theory. In the pursuit of right, the
framers of the settlement fell into wrong. Striving
after justice, they perpetrated injustice. Nothing
1845. could be sounder than the declared principle that “ it
was the duty of the Government to ascertain and pro-
tect all existing rights, those of the poor and humble
villager as well as those of the rich and influential
Talookhdar.”* It was said that this principle had
been not only asserted, but acted upon. But the fact
is, that the practice halted a long way behind the
principle. Such were the feelings wfith which many of
our of&cers regarded the great landholders, that equal
justice between the conflicting claims and interests
of the two classes was too often ignored. There
were scales over the eyes of commonly clear-sighted
men when they came to look at this question in the
face, and therefore the “poor and humble villager”

* See letter of Mr. Jolin Thorn- undeniable truth, tLat **iii so far as
ton, Secretarjto Government, North- this is done with' care and diligence
West Provinces, to Mr. H, M. El- will the measure be successful in
liot, Secretary to Board of Revenue, placing property on a healthy and
April 80, 1845. It is added, with sound footing.’*

SETTLEMENT OF NORTH-WESTEEN PEOVINCES. 159

liad a full measure of justice, pressed down and run- 1S3C43.
ning over, whilst the “rich and influential Talookhdar”
had little or none.

There are few who have not become fa,-mi1ia.T- with
this word Talookhdar ; who do not know that an
influential class of men so styled in virtue of certain
rights or interests in the land, were dispossessed of
those rights or interests and reduced to absolute ruin.

It must be understood, however, that the proprietary
rights of which I speak were very different from the
rights of landed property in England. The Talookh-
dar was little more than an hereditary revenue-con-
tractor. His right was the right to all the just rents
paid by the actual occupants, after satisfaction of
the Government claims. His property was the rent
minus the revenue of a particular estate. This Ta-
lookhdaree right, or right of collection, was distinct
from the Zemindaree right, or proprietary right in ,
the soil; The Talookhdar, who paid to Government
the revenue of a large cluster of villages, had, perhaps,
a proprietary right in some of these small estates;
perhaps, in none. The proprietary right, in most
instances, lay with the village communities. And it
was the main effort of the English officers, engaged
in the Settlement of the North-West Provinces, to
bring these village occupants into direct relations
with the Government, and to receive from them the
amount of the assessment fixed upon their several ■
estates.

Now it was a just and fitting thing that tbe rights
of these village proprietors should be clearly defined.

But it was not always just that the Government should
enter into direct engagements with them and drive
out the intervening Talookhdar. The actual occu-
pants might, in a former generation, have been a con-.

IGO THE ADMINISTMTION OE LORD DALflOUSIE.

183646 , sequence only of a pre-existing Talookhdaree right,
as in cases "where cultivators had been located on
"waste lands by a contractor or grantee of the State ;
or the Talookhdar might have acquired his position
by purchase, by favour, perhaps by fraud, after the
location of the actual occupants ; still it was a pro-
prietary interest, perhaps centuries old. Let us ex-
plain their position as we may, these Talookhdafs con-
stituted the landed aristocracy of the country ; they
had recognised manorial rights ; they had, in many
instances, all the dignity and power of great feudal
barons, and, doubtless, often turned that power to
bad account. But whether for good or for evd, in past
years, we found them existing as a recognised insti-
tution; and it was at the same time a cruel "wrong
and a grievous error to sweep it away as though it
were an incumbrance and an usurpation.

The theory of the Settlement officers was that the
village Zemindars had an inalienable right in the soil,
and that the Talookhdar was little better than an
upstart and an impostor. AH the defects in his
tenure were rigidly scanned; all the "vices of his
character were "violently exaggerated. He was writ-
ten do"wn as a fraudulent upstart and an unscrupu-
lous oppressor. To oust a Talookhdar was held
by some young Settlement officers to be as great an
achievement as to shoot a tiger ; and it was done, too,
with just as clear a con"viction of the benefit con-
ferred upon the district in which the animal prowled
and marauded. It was done honestly, conscien-
tiously, laboriously, as a deed entitling the doer
to the, gratitude of mankind. There was something
thorough in it that "wrung an un"williag admiration
even from those who least approved. It was a
grand levelling system,, reducing everything to first

TREATMENT OF THE TALOOKHDAES. 161

principles and a delving Adam. Who was a gentle- iS33-4e
man and a Talookhdar, they asked, when these time-
honoured Village Communities were first established
on the soil ? So the Settlement Officer, in pursuit of
the great scheme of restitution, was fain to sweep out
the Landed Gentry and to applaud the good thing he
had done.*

And if one, by happy chance, was brought back by
a saving hand, it was a mercy and a miracle; and
the exception which proved the rule. The chances
against him were many and great, for he had divers
ordeals to pass through, and he seldom survived
them all. It was the wont of many Settlement officers
to assist the solution of knotty questions of pro-
prietary right by a reference to personal character
and conduct, so that when the claims of a great
Talookhdar could not be altogether ignored, it was
declared that he was a rogue or a fool — ^perhaps, an
atrocious compound of both — and that he had for-
feited, by oppressions and cruelties, or by neglects
scarcely less cruel, all claim to the compassion of the
State. They gave the man a bad name, and straight-
way they went out to ruin him. A single illustra-
tion will suffice. One of the great landholders thus
consigned to perdition was the Rajah of Mynpooree.

Of an old and honoured family, distinguished for
loyalty and good service to the British Government,
he was the Talookhdar of a large estate comprising
nearly two hundred villages, and was amongst the
most influential of the landed aristocracy of that part
of the country. The Settlement officer was one of

^ In solder official language, de- lions, and to substitute, whenever
by Lieutenant-Governor Ro- there was an opportunity, a village
bertsonas “the prevailing, and per- community for an individinl lanS-
haps excessive, readiness to reduce holder/*
extensive pi operties into minute por-

162 THE ADMINISTEATIOU OE LORD DALHOTJSIE.

1836-46. the ablest and best of his class. Fulfilling the great
Mr. G. Ed- promise of his youth, he afterwards attained to the
iiioustone. iijgiiest post in those very Provinces, an eminence
from which he might serenely contemplate the fact
that the theory of the Dead-Level is against nature,
and cannot be enforced without a convulsion. But,
in the early days of which I am speaking, a great
Talookhdar was to him what it was to others of the
same- school ; and he represented that the Rajah,'
himself incompetent almost to the point of imbecility,
was surrounded by agents of the worst character,
who in his name had been guilty of all kinds of
cruelty and oppression. Unfit as he was said to be
for the management of so large an estate, it would,
according to the prevailing creed, have been a
righteous act to exclude him from it ; but it was
necessary, according to rule, to espy also a flaw in
his tenure; so it was found that he had a just pro-
prietary right in only about a fourth of the two
hundred villages.* It was proposed, therefore, that
his territorial greatness should to this extent be
shorn down in the future Settlement, and that the
bulk of the property should be settled with the vil-
lage communities, whose rights, whatever they might
originally have been, had lain for a century in
abeyance.

, Above the Settlement officer, in the ascendinjr
scale of our Administrative Agency, was the Com-
missioner ; above the Commissioner, the Board of
Revenue ; above the Board of Revenue, the Lieu
tenant-Govemor. In this cluster of graduated autho-
rities the Old and New School alternated like the
Black and White of a chess-board. The recommen-

* The exact number was 189, of pensation, in the sljape of a per-
whicli it was ruled that the Kajah centage, was to be given him for the
could justly be recorded as pro- loss of the rest,
prietor only of 51. A nioney-com-

TREATMENT OP THE TALOOKHDARS.

1G3

dations of George Edmonstone were stoutly opposed
by Robert Hamilton. The sharp, incisive logic of
the Commissioner cut through the fallacious reason-
ing of the Settlement officer. “ He was of opinion
that the value of landed possessions and the import-
ance attached to them could never be made up by a
money allowance ; that the imbecility of the Rajah,
if affording a justification for his being relieved from
the management of his estate, could be none for de-
priving his family of their inheritance ; and that it
was inconsistent to denounce as oppressive in a native
ruler the same measures of sale and dispossession
which were adopted by our own Government towards
Revenue defaulters.”* But the Board, of which the
living principle was Robert Bird, dissented from the
views of the Commissioner, and upheld the levelling
processes of the Settlement officer. Then Lieutenant-
Governor Robertson appeared upon the scene, and
the decision of the Board was flung back upon them
as the unjust growth of a vicious, generalising system,
which would break up every large estate in the
copntry into minute fractions, and destroy the whole
aristocracy of the country. He could not see that,
on the score either of invalidity of tenure or of ad-
ministrative incapacity, it would be just to pare down
the Rajah’s estate to one-fourth of its ancestral dimen-
sions ; so he ruled that the settlement of the whole
ought rightly to be made with the Talookhdar.f But
the vicissitudes of the case were not even then at an

* Despatch of Court of Directors, clusivre ; that if the Zemindars ever
Au^st 13, 1851. possessed the rights attributed to

f ‘‘The Lieutenant-OoVemGr re- them, they had not been in the active
corded his opinion, that no proof of enjoyment of them for upwards of a
the Rajah’s mismanagement, such as century, vphile^ the Rajah’s claims
could Justify his exclusion, had )3een had .been admitted for more than
adduced j that the evidence- in sup- four generations ; that, admitting
port of- the proprietary claims of the the inconvenience which might some-
Zemindars was insufficient and incon- times result from the recognition of

M 2

1836-46.

164 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

183646.

Mr. George
Clerk.

1844.

Mr. Thoma-
son.

end. The opposition of the Board caused some delay
in the issue of the formal instructions of Government
for the recognition of the Talookhdar, and before the
settlement had been made with the Rajah, Robertson
had resigned his post to another. That other was a
man of the same school, with no greater passion than
his predecessor for the subversion of the landed
gentry ; but sickness rendered his tenure of oflBice too
brief, and, before the close of the year, he was suc-
ceeded by one whose name is not to be mentioned
without respect — ^the honoured son of an honoured
father — ^the much-praised, much-lamented Thomason.
He was as earnest and as honest as the men who had
gone before him ; but his strong and sincere convic-
tions lay all in the other way. He was one of the
chief teachers in the New School, and so strong was
his faith in its doctrines that he regarded, with feel-
ings akin to wondering compassion, as men whom
God had given over to a strong delusion that they,
should believe a lie, all who stiU cherished the opi-;
nions which he had done so much to explode.*

the superior malgoosar, it would not much honesty of principle he is pos-
be reconcilable with good feeling or sessed of a constitution of mind
justice to deal as the Board pro- which prevents him from readily
posed to do, with one found in actual adopting the principles of others, or
and long- acknowledged possession, acting upon their rules. A great
He condemned tlie practice of de* part of his Indian career has been
ciding cases of this nature on one passed in opposition to the prevail-
invariahle and generalising principle ; ing maxims of the day, and he finds
stated that he could discover no suf- himself conscientiously adverse to
ficient reason for excluding the Rajah what has been done.” With respect
of Mynpooree from the management to these prevailing maxims, Mr. F.
of any of the villages composing the H. Robinson, of the Civil Service,
Talook of Minchunnali; and finally in a pamphlet published in 1855,
withheld his confirmation of the quotes the significant observation
settlement concluded^ with the vil- of an old Ressaldar of Gardener’s
lage Zemindars, directing the engage- Horse, who said to liim : “ No doubt
ments to be taken from the Talookh- the wisdom of the new gentlemen
Despatch of Court of JDirectorSf had shown them the folly and the
August 13, 1851. ^ ignorance of the gentlemen of the

* See, for example, his refiections old time, on whom it pleased God,
on the contumacy of Mr. Boulderson, nevertheless, to bestow the govern-
ci whom Mr. Thomason says : “With meat of India.”

TEEATMENT OF THE TALOOKHMES.

■165

Supreme in the North-West Provinces, he found the 1836-46.
case of the Mynpooree Rajah still formally before the
Government. No final orders had been issued, so he
issued them. The besom of the Settlement swept the
great Talookhdar out of three-fourths of the estate,
and the village proprietors were left to engage with
Government for all the rest in his stead.

It is admitted now, even by men who were per-
sonally concerned in this great work of the Settlement
of Northern India, that it involved a grave political
error. It was, undoubtedly, to convert into bitter
enemies those whom sound policy would have made
the friends and supporters of the State. Men of the
Old School had seen plainly from the first that by these
measures we were sowing broadcast the seeds of future
trouble. Foremost among these was the veteran Di-
rector Tucker, who had been engaged in the first set-
tlement of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces, and
who knew as well as any man what rights existed on
our original assumption of the government of those
territories. “The way to conciliate the peasantry,” 1832 ,
he wrote, “or to improve their condition, is not, I
think, by dissolving the connexion between them and
the superior Talookhdars, or village Zemindars. The
one we have, I fear, entirely displaced ; but we cannot
destroy the memory of their past or the consciousness
of their present state. They were once prosperous,
and they and their descendants must feel that they are
no longer so. They are silent, because the natives of
India are accustomed to endure and to submit to the
wifi, of their rulers ; but if an enemy appear on our
Western frontier, or if an insurrection unhappily take
place, we shall find these Talookhdars, I apprehend,
in the adverse ranks, and their ryots and retainers
ranged under the same standard.” And a quarter of

166

THE ABMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

JSo6-i6. . a century later, one who had received the traditions
- of this school unbroken from Thomas Campbell
Eobertson, at whose feet he had sat, Avrote that he
had long been pointing out that, “ although the old
families were being displaced fast, we could not
destroy the memory of the past, or dissolve the
ancient connexion between them and their people ; and
said distinctly that, in the event of any insurrection oc-
curring, we should find this great and influential body,
through whom we can alone hope to keep under and
control the rural masses, ranged against us on the side
of the enemy, Avith their hereditary followers and re-
tainers rallying around them, in spite of our attempts
to separate their interests.” “ My warnings,” he
added, “were unheeded, and I was treated as an
alarmist, who, having hitherto served only in the
political department of the State, and being totally
inexperienced in Revenue matters, could give no
sound opinion on the subject.”*

Treatment of Warnings of this kind were, indeed, habitually

gentry. disregarded ; and the system, harsh in itself, was
carried out, in some cases harshly and uncompro-
misingly, almost indeed as though there were a plea-
sure in doing it. It is true that men deprived of their
vested interests in great estates were recommended
for money-payments direct from the Treasury ; but
this was no compensation for the loss of the land,
Avith all the dignity derived from manorial rights
and baronial prmleges,. and it was sometimes felt to
be an insult. It was not even the fashion in
those days to treat the Native Gentry Avith personal
courtesy and conciliation. Some of the great masters

^ Personal Adventures during the and late Kagistrate and Collector of
Indian Rebellion. By William Ed- Budaon, in Rohilcund.
wards, B.C.S., Judge of Benaies,

EENT-FEEE TEKUEES.

167

of the school, men of the highest probity and bene- I8364f
volence, are said to have failed in this with a great
failure, as lamentable as it was surprising. “ In the
matter of discourtesy to the native gentry,” wrote
Colonel Sleeman to John Colvin, “ I can only say
that Robert Mertins Bird insulted them, whenever
he had an opportunity of doing so ; and that Mr.
Thomason was too apt to imitate him in this as
in other things. Of course their example was fol-
lowed by too many of their followers and admirers.”*

And whilst all this was going on, there was another Renl-fi ee
process in active operation by which the position of
the privileged classes was still further reduced.

There is not one of the many difficulties, which the
acquisition of a new country entails upon us, more
serious than that which arises from the multiplicity
of privileges and prescriptions, territorial and official,
which, undetermined by any fixed principle, have
existed under the native Government which we have
supplanted. Even at the outset of our administrative
career it is difficult to deal with these irregular
claims, but the difficulty is multiplied tenfold by
delay. The action of our Government in all such
cases should be prompt and unvarying. Justice or
Injustice should be quick in its operation and equal
in its effects. Accustomed to revolutions of empire
and mutations of fortune, the native mind readily
comprehends the idea of confiscation as the imme-
diate result of conquest. Mercy and forbearance at
such time are not expected, and are little understood.

The descent of the strong hand of the conqueror upon
all existing rights and privileges is looked for with a

See Correspondence annexed to whose authority is entitled to re-
publisked edition of Sleeman’s Oude spect, that the statement is to bo
Diary. I have been told by men received with caution.

168 THE ADMINISTEATION'OF LOED DALHOUSIE.

183646. feeling of submission to inevitable fate ; and at such
a time no one wonders, scarcely any one complains,
when the acts of a former Government are ignored,
and its gifts are violently resumed.

Under former Governments, and indeed, in the
earlier days of our own, there had been large aliena-
tions of revenue in favour of persons who had rendered
good service to the State, or had otherwise acquired
the favour of the rulers of the land. These rent-free
tenures were of many different kinds. A volume
might be fiUed with an account of them. Some were
burdened with conditions; some were not. Some
were personal life-grants ; some were hereditary and
perpetual. Some were of old standing; some were
of recent origin. Some had been feirly earned or
justly acquired ; others were the vile growth of fraud
and corruption. They varied no less in the circum-
stances of their acquisition than in their intrinsic
character and iuherent conditions. But anyhow they
were for some time a part of our system, and had
come to be regarded as the rights of the occupants.
Every year which saw men in undisturbed posses-
sion seemed to strengthen those rights. An inquiry,
at the outset of our career of administration, into the
validity of all such tenures woidd have been an in-
telligible proceeding. Doubtless, indeed, it was ex-
pected. But years passed, and the danger seemed to
have passed with them. Nay, more, the inactivity,
seemingly the indifference of the British Government,
mth respect to those whom we found in possession,
enaboldened others to fabricate similar rights, and to
lay claim to immunities which they had never en-
joyed under their native masters.

In Bengal this manufacture of rent-free tenm’es

EESUMraON OPEBATIOXS.

169

was carried on to an extent that largely diminished 1836.i6,
the legitimate revenue of the country. A very con-
siderable portion of these tenures was the growth of
the transition-period immediately before and imme-
diately after our assumption of the Dewanec, or
Revenue - Administration, of Bengal, Behar, and
Orissa. At the time of the great Permanent Set- 1793-
tiement the rent-free holders were called upon to
register their claims to exemption from the payment
of the Government dues, and their grounds of exemp-
tion ; and as they stUl remained in possession, they
believed that their rights and privileges had been
confirmed to them. The Permanent Settlement,
indeed, was held to be the Magna Charta of the
privileged classes; and for more than forty years
men rejoiced in their freeholds, undisturbed by any
thoughts of invalidity of title or insecurity of
tenure.

But after this lapse of years, when Fraud itself Resumption
might reasonably have pleaded a statute of limita-
tions, the English revenue-officer awoke to a sense of
the wrongs endured by his Government. So much
revenue alienated; so many worthless sinecurists
living in indolent contentment at the cost of the State,
enjoying vast privileges and immunities, to the injury
of the great mass of the People. Surely it was a
scandal and a reproach! Then well-read, clever
secretaries, with a turn for historical illustration, dis-
covered a parallel between this grievous state of
things in Bengal and that which preceded the great
revolution in France, when the privileges of the old
nobility pressed out the very life of the nation, until
the day of reckoning and retribution came, with a
more dire tyranny of its OAvn. Viewed in this Hght,

170. . THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DAIHOUSIE.

183646. it was held to be an imperative duty to Colbertise the
Lakhirajdars of the Lower Provinces.* So the re-
sumption-officer was let loose upon the land. Titles
were called for; proofs of validity were to be esta-
blished, to the satisfaction of the Government func-
tionary, But in families, which seldom last a genera-
tion without seeing their houses burnt down, and in
a climate, which during some months of the year is
made up of incessant rains, and during others of
steamy exhalations — ^where the devouring damp, and
the still more devouring insect, consume aU kinds of
perishable property, even in stout-waUed houses, it
would have been strange if genuine documentary
evidence had been forthcoming at the right time- It
was an awful thing, after so many years of undis-
turbed possession, to be called upon to establish
proofs, when the only proof was actual incumbency.
A reign of terror then commenced. And if, when
thus threatened, the weak Bengalee had not some-
times betaken himself in self-defence to the ready
weapons of forgery, he must have changed his nature-
under the influence of his fears. That what ensued
may properly be described as wholesale confiscation is
not to be doubted. Expert young revenue-officers
settled scores of cases in a day ; and families, who
had held possession of inherited estates for long years,
and never doubted the security of their tenure, found

* In a memoir of the Great Col- taxation by the prostitution of Court
bert I read the following words, favour, or the abuse of official pri- -
which are exactly descriptive of the vileges. These cases Colbert caused
nature of the pretensions of the great to^ be investigated, and those _ who
mass of the Lakhirajdars, and of the failed in making out a legal claim ^ to,
present measures of the Government: immunity were compelled to pay
‘ Under the pernicious system which tlieir share of the public burdens, to
exempted the nobility from payment the relief of tlie labouring classes, on
of direct taxes, a great number of whomneavly the whole weight of tax-
persons had fraudulently assumed ^ See Letters of Gk'cm-

titles and claimed rank, while another let, addressed to tjie Calcutta Papers
class had obtained immunity from (j/’iSSS,

RESUMPTION OPERATIONS.

171

themselves suddenly deprived of their freeholds and 1836 -
compelled to pay or to go. That the State had been
largely defrauded, at some time or other, is more
than probable. Many, it is admitted, were in posses-
sion who had originally no good title to the exemp-
tion they enjoyed. But many also, whose titles were
originally valid, could produce no satisfactory evi-
dence of their validity; so the fraudulent usurper
and the rightful possessor were involved in one com-
mon ruin.

The success of these operations was loudly
vaunted at the time. A social revolution had been
accomplished, to the manifest advantage of the State,
and at no cost, it was said, of popular discontent.

The Bengalee is proverbially timid, patient, and long-
suffering. But there were far-seeing men who said,
even at that time, that though a strong Government
might do this with impunity in those lower provinces,
they must beware how they attempt similar spoliation
in other parts of India, especially in those &om which
the Native Army was recruited. If you do, it was
prophetically said, you will some day find yourselves
holding India only with European troops. The' pro-
bability of alienating by such measures the loyalty of
the military classes was earnestly discussed in the
European journals of Calcutta;* and it was said, by
those who defended the measure, that it was not in-
tended to extend these resumption operations to other

* The following, written a quarter charitable foundations which it is
of a century ago, affords a curious now sought to confiscate and destroy,
glimpse of the apprehensions even The alarm has not yet, we believe,
then entertained by far-seeing men : spread to the Army, but it has not
** We would just hint by the way to been without its causes of com-
tliose who have planned this very plaints; and we would very calmly
extraordinary attack upon vested and respectfully put it to our rulers,
rights, that the Sepoys are alnaost all whether it is wise or prudeut to run
landholders, many of them Brahmins, the risk to which this Besumption
whose families are supported by the measure would sooner or later in-

172 THE ADMIKISTEATION OF LOED DALHOUSIE.

18364G.

Norih-West

Proviuces.

parts of the country. But scarcely any part of the
country escaped ; scarcely any race of men, holding
rent-free estates of any kind, felt secure in the posses-
sion of rights and privileges which they had enjoyed
under Mogul and Mahratta rule, and had believed
that they could stiH enjoy under the Kaj of the
Christian ruler.

In the North-West Provinces it was part of the
duty of the Settlement officer to inquire into rent-free
tenures, and to resume or to release from assessment
the lands thus held. The feelings with which the task
imposed upon him was regarded varied with the
character and the opinions of the functionary thus
employed ; but whilst those who were disposed to look
compassionately upon doubtful claims, or believed
that it would be sound policy to leave men in imdis-
turbed possession even of what might have been in
the first instance unrighteously acquired, were few,
the disciples of Bird and Thomason, who viewed aU
such alienations of revenue as unmixed evils, and
considered that any respect shown to men who were
described as “ drones who do no good in the public
hive” was an injury done to the tax-paying com-
munity at large, were many and powerful, and left
their impression on the land. Eejoicing in the great
principle of the Dead-Level, the Board commonly
supported the views of the resumptionist ; and but
for the intervention of Mr. Robertson, the Lieutenant-

fallibly lead. The native soldier has The Government may then learn
lonjj been in the habit of placing im- rather late that revenue is not the
plicit reliance upon British faith and only thing needful, and that their
honour; but let the charm once be financial arithmetic, instead of mak-
broken, let the confiscation of rent- ing twice two equal to one, as Swift
free land spread to those provinces says wae the case in Ireland, may
out of which our Army is recruited, end by extracting from tlie same
and the consequences may be that process of multiplication just no.
we shall very soon have to trast for thing at ^y—Bnglkhman^ Novenh
>ir security to British troops alone, her 2, 1838.

RESUMPTION OPERATIONS.

173

Governor, there would scarcely, at the end of the
Settlement operations, have been a rent-free tenure
in the land. There was sometimes a show of justice
on the side of resumption, for the immunity had been
granted, in the first instance, as payment for service
no longer demanded, or what had been originally
merely a life-grant had assumed the character of an
hereditary assignment. Perhaps there was sometimes
more than suspicion that in unsettled times, when
there was a sort of scramble for empire, privileges of
this kind had been fabricated or usurped ; but in other
instances strong proofs of validity were ignored, and
it has been freely stated, even by men of their own
order, that these earnest-minded civilians “rejected
royal firmans and other authentic documents,” and
brought upon the great rent-roll of the Company
lands which had been for many generations free from
assessment. Nay, even the highest authority, in the
great Settlement epoch, declared that “the Settle-
ment officer swept up, without inquiry, every patch
of unregistered land ; even those exempted by a sub-
sequent order, which did not come out until five-
sixths of the tenures had been resumed.” In one
district, that of Furruckabad, “the obligations of a
treaty and the direct orders of Government were but
lightly dealt with ; and in aU, a total disregard was
evinced for the acts even of such men as Warren
Hastings and Lord Lake.”* In every case what was
done was done conscientiously, in the assured belief
that it was for the general good of the people-; but
the very knowledge that was most vaunted, a know-
ledge of the mstitutions and the temper .of the natives,

» Minute of Mr. Kobertson, Lieu- tbe Court of Directors, August 1%'
tenant-Governor of the North-West 1S51.

Provinces, quoted in Despatch of

1838-46.

174 THE ADMmiSTEATION OF LOED DALHOCSIE.

■183646. -was that which they most lacked. They were wrecked
upon the dangerous coast of Little Learning.

There were, however, it has been said, some men en-
gaged in those great Settlement operations who were
not smitten with this unappeasable earth-hunger, and
who took altogether another view both of the duty
and of the policy of the State. Mr. Mansel, of whose
eager desire, so honourably evinced at a later period,
to uphold the Native States of India I have already
spoken, was the principal exponent of these excep-
tional opinions. “ If it be of importance,” he wrote,

■ in his Report on the Settlement of the Agra District,
“ to conciliate the affections of the people, as well as
to govern by the action of naked penal laws ; if it be
important that the natural tendency of every part of
native society in these provinces, to sink into one
wretched level of poverty and ignorance, should, as a
principle, be checked as far as possible by -the acts of
Government ; if it be important that the pride of
ancestry and, nobility, the valour of past times, and
the national character of a country, should be che-
rished in recollection, as ennobling feelings to the
human mind, 1 know of no act to which I could
point mth more satisfactioin, as a zealous servant of
Government, than the generous manner in which the
restoration of the family of the Buddawar Rajah to rank
and fortune was made by the Lieutenailt-Governor
of Agra ; and I cannot refrain from allowing myself to
echo, for the inhabitants of this part of the country,
that feeling, in a report of necessity, largely con-
nected with the welfare and happiness of the Strict
of Agi:a.” Mr. Robertson had granted the Buddawar
Jagheer to the adopted son of the deceased Rajah, and
it was the recognition of this adoption which so re-,
joiced the heart of the sympathising Settlement officer.

■ RESTMPTION OPEBATIONS. 17o

As the events of which I am about to write occurred, 1817-52.
for the most part, in Northern India, it is to the dis-
turbing causes in that part of the country that the
introductory section of this book is mainly devoted.

But before it passes altogether away from the subject
of Resumption, something should be said about the
operations of that great confiscatory Tribunal known
as the Inam Commission of Bombay. This was but
the supplement of a series of measures, of which it of Bombay
would take a long time to write in detail. A great
part of the territory, now constituting the Presidency
of Bombay, was in 1817 conquered from the Peishwah.

With conquest came the old difficulty, of which I
have spoken* — ^the difficulty of dealing with the
privileges and prescriptions, the vested interests of all
kinds, territorial and official, derived from, the Mah-
ratta Government. As in Bengal and in the North-
Western Provinces, these difficulties were greatly ag-
gravated by delay. Had we instituted a searching
inquiry at once, and resumed every doubtful tenure ;
had we cancelled even the undoubted grants of former,
governments, and suddenly annulled all existing privi-
leges, such proceedings in the eyes of the people would
have been the intelligible tyranny of the conqueror,
and, at all events, in accprdance with the custom of
the country. But our very desire to .deal justly and
generously with these privileged classes generated de-
laid and unequal action. At different times, and in dif-
ferent parts of Western India, these old alienations of
Revenue were dealt with after different fashions ; and
it was a source of bitter discontent that, under like
circumstances, claims were settled by Government
with far greater rigour in one part of the country
than in another.

♦ Ante, page 1G7,

.176 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

‘s58. Years passed, various regulations were framed, for
the most part of restricted operation ; and still, after
the country had been for more than a third of a
century under British rule, the great question of
alienated revenue had only been partially adjusted.
So in 1852 an act was passed, which empowered a
little body of English ofScers, principally of the
military profession — ^men, it was truly said, “not
well versed in the principles of law, and wholly un-
practised in the conduct of judicial inquiries” — ^to
exercise arbitrary jumdiction over thousands of
estates, many of them held by men of high family,
proud of their lineage, proud of their ancestral privi-
leges, who had won what they held by the sword, and
had no thought by any other means of maintaining
possession. In the Southern Mahratta country there
were large numbers of these Jagheerdars, who had
never troubled themselves about title-deeds, who
knew nothing about rules of evidence, and who had
believed that long years of possession were more
cogent than any intricacies of law. If they had ever
held written proofs of the validity of their tenures,
they had seldom been so provident as to preserve
them. But, perhaps, they had never had better proof
than the memory of a fierce contest, in the great
gurdee-ka-wukht, or time of trouble, which had pre-
luded the dissolution of the Mahratta power in
Western India, and placed the white man on the
Throne of the Peishwah.* Year after year had

^ See the admirably-written me- mitted arms and retainers, with
morial of Mr. G, B, Seton-Karr; whose aid they had learnt to con-
“ Chiefs, who had won their estates sider mere titles superfluous, as with-
by the sword, had not been careful out it they were contemptible. In
to fence them in with a paper barrier, , other instances, men of local in-
which they felt the next successful fluence and energetic character
adventurer would sweep away as un- having grasped at the lands which
ceremoniously as themselves. In- lay within their reach in the general
stead of parchments, they farans- scramble which preceded the down-

THE INAM COMraSSIOU OF BOMBAY.

177

passed, one generation had followed another in nn-
disturbed possession, and the great seal of Time stood
them in stead of the elaborate technicalities of the
Conveyancer. But the Inam Commission was esta-
blished. The fame of it went abroad throughout the
Southern Mahratta country. From one village to
another passed the appalling news that the Commis-
sioner had appeared, had called for titles that could
not be produced, and that nothing but a general conr
•fiscation of property were likely to result from the
operations of this mysterious Tribunal. “ Each day,”
it has been said, “ produced its list of victims ; and
the good fortune of those who escaped but added to
the pangs of the crowd who came forth from the
shearing-house, shorn to the skin, unable to work,
ashamed to beg, condemned to penury.”* The titles
of no less than thirty-five thousand estates, great and
small, were called for by the Commission, and during
the first five years of its operations, three-fifths of 1852-67.
them were confiscated.!

Whilst the operations of the Revenue Department Operation oi
were thus spreading alarm among the privileged
classes in all parts of the country, the Judicial De-
partfnent was doing its duty as a serviceable ally in
the great war of extermination. Many of the old
landed proprietors were stripped to the skin by the
decrees of our civil courts. The sale of land in
satisfaction of these decrees was a process to which
recourse was often had among a people inordinately

fal of the Peishwah’s Government, precarious title, or of no title at all,
had transmitted their acquisitions to found themselves suddenly brought
the children, fortified by no better face to face with an apparatus,
titles than entries in the village which, at successive strokes, peeked
account-books, which a closer ex- away their possessions with the h/ rah
amination showed to be recent or precision of the planing machine ”
spurious. Roused from the dreams * Memorial of G. B. Seton-? air.
of thirty years, these proprietors of t

178 THE ADMINISTRATIOK OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1836 56 . addicted to litigation. We must not regard it alto-
gether -witli English, eyes ; for the Law had often
nothing else to take. There was many a small landed
proprietor whose family might have been established
for centuries on a particular estate, with much pride
of birth and affection for his ancestral lands, but
possessing movable goods and chattels not worth
more than a few rupees. He might have owned a pair
of small bullocks and a rude country cart consisting
of two wheels and a few bamboos, but beyond such
aids to husbandry as these, he had nothing but a
drinking- vessel, a few cooking-pots, and the blankets
which kept the dews off at night. Justice in his
case might not be satisfied -without a surrender of his
interests in the land, which constituted the main por-
tion of his wealth.* So a large number of estates
every year were put up to sale, under the decrees of
the courts, in satisfaction of debts sometimes only of
a few shillings, and bought by new men, perhaps from
different parts of the country, not improbably the
agents or representatives of astute native function-
aries from the lower pro-vinces; whilst the ancient
proprietors, still rooted to the sod, shrunk into
farmers or under-tenants on their old ancestral do-
mains. Thus a revolution of landed property was
gradually brought about by means of English appli-
cation, which, acting coincidentally -with the other
agencies of which I have spoken, swelled the number

* T have stated here the principle Bengal Civil Service, in a Memoraii-
iipon which the law was based. IBut dum before me, “ estates put up f^or
I believe that in niaii;y cases no pains sale for four rupees (eight shillings),
were taken to ascertain in the first which appears to me just the same as
instance what were the movable if an English grocer, getting a decree
goods of the debtor. Recourse was in a small-debt court against a squire
had to the register of landed pro- for half a sovereign, put up his estate
perty, even when the debt amounted in Cheshire for the same, instead
to no more than four or five rupees, of realising the debt by the sale of
“ I have seen,** says an off 'ler of the his silk umbrella.”

DEPRESSION OP THE UPPER CLASSES.

179

of the disaffected, dangerous classes, -who traced their 1836-56
downfal to the operations of British rule, and sullenly
bided their time for the recovery of what they had
lost, in some new revolutionary epoch.

This general system of depression, which, thus as-
suming many different forms and exercising itself in
many different ways, struck with uniform precision at
the most cherished privileges of the upper classes, had
not its origin in the fertile brain of Lord Dalhousie.

He only confirmed and extended it ; confirmed it in
our older provinces, and extended it to those which
he had himself acquired. In the Punjab it sorely dis-
quieted some few of our more chivalrous English
officers connected with the Administration,* and it
was carried into the Oude dominions, as will hereafter
be shown, with a recklessness which in time brought
down upon us a terrible retribution. Every new
acquisition of territory made the matter much worse.

Not merely because the privileged classes were in
those territories struck down, but because the exten-
sion of the British Raj gradually so contracted the
area on which men of high social position, expelled by
our system from the Company’s provinces, could find
profitable and honourable employment, that it seemed
as though every outlet for native enterprise and ariabi-
tion were about to be closed against them. It was
this, indeed, that made the great difference between

* Sir Herbert Edwardes, in a state of the old officials and Sirdars.”
Memorandum quoted by Mr. Charles Of Henry Lawrence himself, Mr.

Raikes in his graphic Kotes of the Baikes says : “ He fought every
Revolt of the North-West Provinces losing battle for the old chiefs and
of India,” says of Arthur Cocks, J^heerdars with entire disregard for
that he “ imbibed Sir Henry Law- his own interest, and at last left the
rence’s feelings, and became greatly Punjab, to use Colonel Edwardes’s
attached to the chiefs and people, words, dented all over with defeats
He hardly stayed a year after annex- and disappointments, honourable
ation, and. left the Punjab because scars in the eyes of the bystanders.”
he could not bear to see the fallen

180 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1836-56.

The Priest-
hood.

resumptions of rent-free estates under the Native
Governments and under our own. It has been said
that under the former there was no security of tenure ;
and it is true that the Native Princes did not consider
themselves bound to maintain the grants of their pre-
decessors, and often arbitrarily resumed them. But
the door of honourable and lucrative employment
was not closed against the sufferers. All the great
offices of the State, civil and military, were open to the
children of the soil. But it was not so in our British
territories. There the dispossessed holder, no longer
suffered to be an unprofitable drone, was not per-
mitted to take a place among the working bees of the
hive. And what place was there left for him, in
which he could serve under other masters ? We had
no room for him under us, and we left no place for
him away from us. And so we made dangerous
enemies of a large number of influential persons,
among whom were not only many nobles of royal or
princely descent, many military chiefs, with large
bodies of retainers, and many ancient landholders
for whom a strong feudal veneration still remained
among the agricultural classes, but numbers of the
Brahminical, or priestly order, who had been sup-
ported by the alienated revenue which we resumed,
and who turned the power which they exercised over
the minds of others to fatal account in fomentino-
popular discontent, and iustilling into the minds of
the people the poison of religious fear.

Other measures were in operation at the same time,
the tendency of which was to disturb the minds and
to inflame the hatred of the Priesthood. It seemed as
though a great flood of innovation were about to

BRIHMINISM.

181

sweep away all their powers and their privileges. The 184S-5&
pale-faced Christian knight, with the great Excalihar
of Truth in his hand, was cleaving right through aU
the most cherished fictions and superstitions of
Brahminism. A new generation was springing up,
without faith, without veneration ; an inquiring,
doubting, reasoning race, not to be satisfied with
absurd doctrines or captivated by grotesque fables.

The literature of Bacon and Milton was exciting a
new appetite for Truth and Beauty ; and the exact
sciences of the West, with their clear, demonstrable
facts and inevitable deductions, were putting to shame
the physical errors of Hindooism. A spirit of inquiry
had been excited, and it was little likely ever to be
allayed. It was plain that the inquirers were exalt-
ing the Professor above the Pundit, and that the new
teacher was fast displacing the old.

Rightly to understand the stake for which the
Brahmin was playing, and with the loss of which he
was now threatened, the reader must keep before him
the fact that Brahminism is the most monstrous
system of interference and oppression that the world
has ever yet seen, and that it could be maintained only
by ignorance and superstition of the grossest kind.

The people had been taught to believe that in all the
daily concerns of life Brahminical ministrations were
essential to worldly success. The Deity, it was
believed, could be propitiated only by money-pay-
ments to this favoured race of holy men. “ Every
form and ceremony of religion,” it has been said ; “ aH
the public festivals ; all the accidents and concerns of
life; the revolutions of the heavenly bodies; tiie
superstitious fears of the people; births, sicknesses,
marriages, misfortunes ; death ; a future state — ^have.
all been seized as sources of revenue to the Brahmins

182 THE ADMINISTKATION OF LORD DALHODSIE.

IS4S-56. “ The farmer does not reap his harvest Avithout paying

a Brahmin to perform some ceremony ; a tradesman
cannot begin business without a fee to a Brahmin ; a
fisherman cannot build a new boat, nor begin to fish
in a spot which he has farmed, without a ceremony
and a fee.”* “ The Brahmin,” says another and more
recent writer, “ does not only stand in a hierarchical,
but also in the highest aristocratical position ; and
he has an authoritative voice in all pursuits of in-
dustry. All processes in other arts, as Avell as agri-
culture, are supposed to have been prescribed and
imparted through the Brahmins. Every newly-com-
menced process of business, every new machine, or
even repair of an old one, has to go through the cere-
mony of ‘ poojah,’ with a feeing of the Brahmin.”f
And as the Brahmin was thus the controller of all the
ordinary business concerns of his countrymen, so also
was he the depositary of all the learning of the
country, and the regulator of all the intellectual pur-
suits of the people. There was, indeed, no such thing
among them as purely secular education. “ It is a
marked and peculiar feature in the character of
Hindooism,” says another writer, himself by birth a
Hindoo, “ that instead of confining itself within the
proper and lawful bounds prescribed to every theo-
logical system, it interferes with and treats of every
department of secular knowledge which human genius
has ever invented; so that grammar, geography,
physics, law, medicine, metaphysics, &c., do each form
as essential a part of Hindooism as any religious topic
with which it is concerned. ... In their religious
works they have treated of all the branches of secular

* Ward on the Hindoos. . is mncli interesting and valuable

f Jeffreys on the “British Army matter,
in India,” "Appendix, in which thfere

PROGRESS OF ENLIGHTENMENT.

183

knowledge known among them, in a regular, systematic 1 84S-56
manner ; and have given them out to the world in a
tone of absolute authority, from which there could he
no appeal.”* But the English had established a Court
of Appeal of the highest order, and Brahminism was
being continually cast in it. In a word, the whole
hierarchy of India saw their power, their privileges,
and their perquisites rapidly crumbling away from
them, and they girded themselves up to arrest the
devastation.

All this had been going on for years ; hut the pro-
gress of enlightenment had been too slow, and its
manifestations too little obtrusive, greatly to alarm
the sacerdotal mind. As long as the receptacles of
this new wisdom were merely a few clever hoys in the
great towns, and the manhood of the nation was still
saturated and sodden with the old superstition, Brah-
minism might yet flourish. But when these boys
grew up in time to be heads of families, rejoicing in
what they called their freedom from prejudice, laugh-
ing to scorn their ancestral faith as a bundle of old
wives’ fables, eating meat and drinking wine, and
assuming some at least of the distinguishing articles
of Christian apparel, it was dear that a very serious
peril was beginning to threaten the ascendancy of the
Priesthood. They saw that a reformation of this
kind once commenced, would work its way in time
through aU the strata of society. They saw that, as
new provinces were one after another brought under
British rule, the new light must diffuse itself more and
more, until there would scarcely be a place for Hin-
dooism to lurk unmolested. And some at least, con-
founding cause and effect, began to argue that all this
annexation and absorption was brought about for the
* Caloutla Mevitto, yoL jd. Article: "Physical Errors of Hindooism.”

184 THE ADMINISTEATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1848-56. express purpose of overthrowing the ancient faiths of
the country, and establishing a new religion in theii
place.

Edueaiioa. Every monstrous lie exploded, every abominable
practice suppressed, was a blow struck at the Priest-
hood; for all these monstrosities and abominations
had their root in Hindooism, and could not he eradi-
cated without sore disturbance and confusion of the
soil. The murder of women on the funeral-pile, the
murder of little children in the Zenana, the murder of
the sick and the aged on the banks of the river, the
murder of human victims, reared and fattened for the
sacrifice, were all religious institutions, from which
the Priesthood derived either profit, power, or both.
Nay, even the wholesale strangling of un.suspecting'
travellers was sanctified and ceremonialised by re-
ligion. Now all these cruel rites had been sup-
pressed, and, what was still worse in the eyes of the
Brahmins, the foul superstitions which nurtured them
were fast disappearing from the land. Authority
might declare their wickedness, and still they might
exist as part and parcel of the faith of the people.
But when Reason demonstrated their absurdity, and
struck conviction into the very heart of the nation,
there was an end of both the folly and the crime.
The Law might do much, hut Education would as-
suredly do much more to sweep away all these time-
honoured superstitions. Education, pure and simple
in its secularity, was quite enough in itself to heAv
down this dense jungle of Hindooism ; hut when it
was seen that the functions of the English school-
master and of the Christian priest were often united
in the same person, and that high officers of the State
were present at examinations conducted, by chaplains
or missionaries, a fear arose lest even secular educa-

PEOGItESS OF ENLIGHTENMENT.

185

tion miglit be the mask of proselytism, and so the
Brahmins began to alarm the minds of the elder
members of the Hindoo community, who abstained,
under priestly influence, from openly countenancing
what they had not the energy boldly to resist.*

And, every year the danger increased. Every
year were there manifestations of a continually in-
creasing desire to emancipate the natives of India
from the gross superstitions which enchained them.
One common feeling moved alike the Enghsh Govern-
ment and the English community. In other matters
of State-policy there might be essential changes, but
in this there was no change. One Governor might
replace another, but only to evince an increased hos-
tility to the great Baal of Hindooism. And in no
man was there less regard for time-honoured abomi-
nations and venerable absurdities — ^in no man did
the zeal of iconoclasm work more mightily than
in Lord Dalhousie. During no former administra-
tion had the vested interests of Brahminism in moral
and material error been more ruthlessly assailed.
There was nothing systematic in all this. Almost,
indeed, might it be said that it was unconscious.
It was simply the manifestation of such love as any
clear-sighted, strong-headed man may be supposed
to have for truth above error, for intelligent pro-
gress above ignorant stagnation. From love of
Ihis kind, from the assured conviction that it was
equally humane and politic to substitute the strength
and justice of British administration for what he
regarded as the eflete tyrannies of the East, had
emanated the annexations which had distinguished

* The English journalists some- "We cannot help expressing great
times remarked in their reports of surprise at the absence ol natives of
these school-examinations upon the influence.” — Ben^alHutiaru, March
absence of the native gentry— e. g . : 14* 1 858.

1848.5f>.

186 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHODSIE

1848 - 36 . his rule. And as he desired for the good of the people
to extend the territorial rule of Great Britain, so he
was eager also to extend her moral rule, and to make
those people subject to the powers of light rather
than of darkness. And so he strove mightily to ex-
tend among them the blessings of European civilisa-
tion, and the Priesthood stood aghast at the sight of
the new things, moral and material, by which they
were threatened.

Many and portentous were these menaces. Not
only was Government Education, in a more syste-
matised and pretentious shape than before, rapidly
extending its network over the whole male popula-
tion of the country, but even the fastnesses of the
female apartments were not secure against the intru-
sion of the new learning and new philosophy of the
West. England had begun to take account of its
short-comings, and, among all the reproaches heaped
upon the Company, none had been so loud or so
general as the cry that, whilst they spent millions on
War, they grudged hundreds for purposes of Edu-
cation. So, in obedience to this cry, instructions had
been sent out to India, directing larger, more com-
prehensive, more systematic measures for the instruc-
tion of the people, and authorising increased expendi-
ture upon them. Whilst great Universities were to
be established, under the immediate charge of the
Government, the more humble missionary institu-
tions were to be aided by grants of public money,
and no effort was to be spared that could conduce to
the spread of European knowledge. It was plain to
the comprehension of the guardians of Eastern learn-
ing, that what had been done to unlock the flood-
gates of the West, would soon appear to be as
nothing in comparison with the great tide of Euro-

PROGRESS OF ENLIGHXENMEST.

187

pean civilisation wliicli was about to be poured out 1848-56.
upon them.

Most alarming of all were the endeavours made, Female Edn-
during Lord Dalhousie’s administration, to penetrate
tbe Zenanawith our new learning and pur new customs.

The English at the large Presidency towns began to
systematise their efforts for the emancipation of the
female mind from the utter ignorance which had been
its birthright, and the wives and daughters of the
white men began to aid in the work, cheered and en-
couraged by the sympathies of their sisters at home.

For the first time, the education of Hindoo and
Mahomedan females took, during the administration
of Lord Dalhousie, a substantial recognised shape.

Before it had been merely a manifestation of mis-
sionary zeal addressed to the cpnversion of a few
orphans and castaways. But now, if not the imme-
diate work of the Government in its corporate capacity,
it was the pet project and the especial charge of a Mr. Beiliune.
member of the Government, and, on his death, passed
into the hands of the Governor-General himself, and
afterwards was adopted by the Company’s Govern-
ment. Some years before, the Priesthood, secure in
the bigotry and intolerance of the heads of families,
might have laughed these efforts to scorn. But now
young men, trained under English Professors, were
becoming fathers and masters, sensible of the great
want of enlightened female companionship, and ill-
disposed to yield obedience to the dogmas of the
Priests. So great, indeed, was this yearning after
something more attractive and more satisfying than
the inanity of the. Zenana, that the courtesans of the
Calcutta Bazaars taught themselves to play on in-
struments, to sing songs, and to read poetry, that
thereby they might lure from the dreary enyiron-

188 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHODSIE.

1855-56.

Re-marriage
of Hindoo
Widows.

ments of their vapid homes the very flower of Young
Bengal.

About the same time the wedge of another startling
innovation was being driven into the very heai*t of
Hindoo Society. Among the many cruel wrongs to
which the womanhood of the nation was subjected was
the institution which forbade a bereaved wife ever to
re-marry. The mdow who did not burn was con-
demned to perpetual chastity. Nay, it has been
surmised that the burning inculcated in the old re-
ligious writings of the Hindoos was no other than
that which, centuries afterwards, the great Christian
teacher forbade, saying that it is better to marry than
to burn. Be this as it may, the re-marriage of Hindoo
widows was opposed both to the creeds and the
customs of the land. It was an evil and a cruel thing
itself, and the prolific source of other evils. Evil and
cruel would it have been in any country and under
any institutions, but where mere children are married,
often to men advanced in years, and are left widows,
in tender youth, when they have scarcely looked upon
their husbands, its cruelty is past counting. To the
more enlightened Hindoos, trained in our English
colleges and schools, the evils of this prohibition were
so patent and so distressing, that they were fain to see
it abrogated by law. One of their number wrote a
clever treatise in defence of the re-marriage of widows,
and thousands signed a petition, in which a belief
was expressed that perpetual widowhood was not en-
joined by the Hindoo scriptures. But the orthodox
party, strong in texts, greatly outnumbered, and,
judged by the standard of Hindooism, greatly out-
argued them. The Law and the Prophets were on
their side. It was plain that the innovation would
inflict another deadly blow on the old Hindoo law of

PEOGKESS OF ENUGUTENMENT.

189

inheritance. Already had dire offence been given to 1855.56
the orthodoxy of the land by the removal of those
disabilities ■which forbade all who had forsaken their
ancestral faith to inherit ancestral property. A law
had been passed, declaring the abolition of “ so much
of the old law or usage as inflicted on any person
forfeiture of rights or property, by reason of his or
her renouncing, or having been excluded from, the
communion of any religion.” Against this the old
Hindoos had vehemently protested, not without
threats, as a violation of the pledges given by the
British Government to the natives of India ; pledges,
they said, issued in an hour of weakness and revoked
in an hour of strength.* But Lord Dalhousie had
emphatically recorded his opinion “that it is the
duty of the State to keep in its o’wn hands the right
of regulating succession to property,” and the Act had
been passed. And now there was further authorita-
tive interference on the part of the State, for it was
proposed to bestow equal rights of inheritance on the
offspring of what the old-school Hindoos declared to
be an illicit, God-proscribed connexion. This, how-
ever, was but a part of the evil. Here was another step
towards the complete emancipation of woman ; and
Hindoo orthodoxy believed, or professed to believe,
that if -widows were encouraged to marry new hus-
bands instead of burning with the corpses of the old,

^ The Bengal Memorial said: changed into sullen submission ta
Your memorialists will not concetti their will, and obedience to their
that from the moment the proposed power.” The Madras Memorial
act becomes a part of the law appli- was couched in much stronger lan-
cable to Hinaoos, that confidence guage. It denounced the measure
which they hitherto felt in the pa* as a direct act of tyranny, and said
ternal character of their British tliat the British Government, “ tread-
rulers will be most materially shaken, ing the path of oppression,” ‘‘would
No outbreak, of course, is to be well deserve what it will assuredly
dreaded ; but the active spirit of feiv obtain — the hatred and detestation
vent loyalty to their sovereign will be of the oppressed.”

190 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

1855 - 56 . wives would be induced to make themselves widows
by poisoning or otherwise destroying their lords. It
was apprehended, too — and not altogether without
reason* — ^that the re-marriage of Hindoo widows
would soon be followed by a blow struck at Hindoo
polygamy, especially in its worst but most honoured
form of Kulinism ; and so the Brahmins, discomfited
and alarmed by these innovations, past, present, and
prospective, strove mightily to resist the tide, and
to turn the torrent of destruction back upon their
enemies.f

Tbe Railway Nor was it only by the innovations of moral

graph'* pj^og^^ss that the hierarchy of India were alarmed
and offended. The inroads and encroachments of
physical science were equally distasteful and dis-
quieting. A privileged race of men, who had been
held in veneration as the depositaries of all human
knowledge, were suddenly shown to be as feeble and
impotent as babes and sucklings. It was no mere
verbal demonstration ; the arrogant self-assertion of
the white man, which the Hindoo Priesthood could
contradict or explain away. There were no means of
contradicting or explaining away the railway cars,

* See the following passage of a c|ueiit desertion of them, was an in-
speech delivered by Mr. Barnes Pea- jury to society, and therefore that it.
cock, in the Legislative Council, should be illegal to do so. He”
July 19, 1856 : “ There was a great (Mr. Peacock) “ maintained that it
distinction between preventing a mail was the duty of the Legislature, iii
from doing that which his religion such a case, to prevent him from
directed him to do, and preventing doing that which liis religion merely
him from doing that which his re- permitted, but did not command him
ligion merely allowed him to do. If to do.” ‘ ,

a man were to say that his religion f The “Bill to remove all legaT
did not forbid polygamy, and there- obstacles to the marriage of Hinaoo\
fore that he might marry as many' widows,” though introduced and dis^
wives as he pleased, when it was cussed during the administration of '
impossible for him to carry out the Lord Dalhousie, was not finally
contract of marriage, it would be no passed till after his retirement. It
interference with his religion for the received the assent of Lord Corning
Legislature to say that the marrying in July, 1850.
of a hundred wives, and 'the subse-

MATERIAL PROGRESS.

191

which travelled, without horses or bullocks, at the 1848-50
rate of thirty miles an hour, or the electric wires,
which in a few minutes carried a message across the
breadth of a whole province.

These were facts that there was no gainsaying. He
who ran might read. The prodigious triumphs over
time and space achieved by these “ fire-carriages ”
and “lightning-posts,” put to shame the wisdom of
the Brahmins, and seemed to indicate a command
over the supernatural agencies of the Unseen World,
such as the Pundits of the East could never attain or
simulate. They, who for their own ends had im-
parted a sacred character to new inventions, and had
taught their disciples that all improvements in art
and science were derived from the Deity through
their especial intercession, and were to be inaugu-
rated with religious ceremonies attended with the
usual distribution of largesses to the priests, now
found that the white men could make the very ele-
ments their slaves, and call to their aid miraculous
powers undreamt of in the Brahminical philosophy;

Of what use was it any longer to endeavour to per-
suade the people that the new knowledge of tlie
West was only a bundle of shams and impostures,
when any man might see the train come in at a
given moment, and learn at Benares how many
pounds of flour were sold for the rupee that morn-
ing in the bazaars of Delhi and Calcutta ?

To the introduction into India of these mysterious
agencies the Hour and the Man were alike propi-
tious. When Lord Dalhousie went out to India,
England was just recovering from the efifects of that
over-activity of speculation which had generated such
a disturbance of the whole financial system of tho
country. She had ceased to project lines of Railway

192 THE ADMINISTBATION OF LOUD DALHOUSIE.

1848-56. between towns without Traffic, and through countries
without Population, and had subsided, after much
suffering, into a healthy state of reasonable enter-
prise, carefully estimating both her wants and her
resources. As President of the Board of Trade,
Dalhousie had enjoyed the best opportunities of ac-
quainting himself with the principles and with the
details of the great question of the day, at the one
central point to which all information converged,
and he had left England with the full determination,
God willing, not to leave the country of his adoption
until he had initiated the construction of great trunk-
roads of iron between all the great centres of Govern-
ment and of Commerce, and had traversed, at rail-
way speed, some at least of their first stages. A
little while before, the idea of an Iridian railway had,
in the estimation of the greater number of English
residents, been something speculative and chimerical,
encouraged only by visionaries and enthusiasts. A
few far-seeing men, foremost among whom was Mac-
donald Stephenson, predicted their speedy establish-
ment, and with the general acceptance of the nation ;
but even after Dalhousie had put his hand to the
work, and the Company had responded to his efforts,
it was the more general belief that railway commu-
nication in India would be rather a concern of Go-
vernment, useful in the extreme for military pur-
poses, than a popular institution supplying a national
want. It was thought that Indolence, Avarice, and
Superstition would keep the natives of the country
from flocking to the Railway Station. But with
a keener appreciation of the inherent power of so
demonstrable a benefit to make its own way, even
against these moral obstructions, Dalhousie had full
faith in the result. He was right. The people noAV

MATEBIAL PROGRESS.

19S

learnt to estimate at its full worth the great truth
that Time is Money; and having so learned, they
■were not to be deterred from profiting by -it by
any tenderness of respect for the feelings of their
spiritual guides. i

That the fire-carriage on the iron road was a heayjr
blow to the Brahminical Triesthood is not to be
doubted. The lightning post, which sent invisible
letters through the air and brought back answers,
from incredible distances, in less time than ah or-
dinary messenger could bring them from the next
street, was a still greater marvel and a stiE greater
disturbance. But it was less patent and obtrusive.
The one is the natural complement of the other ; and
Dalhousie, aided by the genius of O’Shaughnessy,
had soon spread a network of electric wires across
the whole length and breadth of the country. It was
a wise thing to do ; a right thing to do ; but it was
alarming and offensive to the Brahminical mind. It
has been said, that as soon as we had demonstrated
that the earth is a sphere revolving on its a:^, there
was an end to the superstitions of Hindooism. And
so there was — in argument, but not in fact. - The
Brahminical teachers insisted that the new doctrines
of Western civilisation were mere specious invention^
TOth no groundwork of eternal truth, and as their
disciples could not bring the test of them senses to
such inquiries as these, they succumbed to authority
rather than to reason, or perhaps lapsed mto a state
of bewildering doubt. But material experiments, so
palpable and portentous that they might be seen at a
distance of many miles, ■ convinced whilst they, as^
founded. The most ignorant and unreasoning of
men could see that the thing was done. They knew
that Brahminism had never done it. They saw plaudy

194 THE ADMINISTBATION OF LOED DALHODSIE,

1848 - 56 . the fact that there were wonderful things in the world
which their own Priests could not teach them — of
which, indeed, with all their boasted wisdom, they
had never dreamt ; and from that time the Hindoo
Hierarchy lost half its power, for the People lost half
their faith.

Caste. But dear as was all this, and alarming as were the
prospects thus unfolded to the Pundits, there was
something more than this needed to disturb the
popular mind. Hindooisrn might be assailed; Hin-
dooism might be disproved ; and still men might go
about their daily business without a fear for the future
or a regret for the past. But there was something
about which they disturbed themselves much more
than about the abstract truths of thdr religion. The
great institution of Caste was an ever-present reality.,
It entered into the commonest concerns of life. It was
intelligible to the meanest understanding. Every
man, woman, and child knew what a terrible thing it
would be to be cast out from the community of the
brotherhood, and condemned to live apart, abhorred
of men and forsaken by God. If, then, the people
could be taught that the English by some insidious
means purposed to defile the Hindoos, and to bring
them aU to a dead level of one-caste or of no-caste, a
great rising of the Natives might sweep the Fo-
reigners into the sea. This was an obvious lino of
policy; but it was not a policy for all times. It
needed opportunity for its successful development.
EqnaUy patient and astute, the Brahmin was content
to bide his time rather than to risk anything by an
inopportune demonstration. The English were loud
in their professions of toleration, and commonly cam
tious in their practice. Still it was only in the nature
of things that they shoifid some day make a false step.

As the Brahmin thus lay in wait, eager for his

PEISON DISCIPLINE.

195

opportunity to strike, he thought he espied, perhaps l845-fe6.
in an unexpected quarter, a safe point of attack. It
required some monstrous invention, very suitable to The Messing
troubled times, hut only to be circulated with success Gaok"' ™
after the popular mind, by previous excitement, had
been prepared to receive it, to give any colour of pro-
bability to a report that the Government had laid a
plot for the defilement of the whole mass of the
people. But there were certain classes with which
Government had a direct connexion, and whose bodies
and souls were in the immediate keeping of the State.

Among these were the inmates of our gaols. As
these people were necessarily dependent upon Govern-
ment for their daily food, it appeared to be easy, by
a weU-devised system of Prison Discipline, either to
destroy the caste of the convicts or to starve them to
death. The old tolerant regulations allowed every
man to cater and to cook for himself. A money-
allowance was granted to him, and he turned it into
food after his own fashion. But this system was very
injurious to prison discipline. Men loitered over
their cooking and their eating and made excuses to
escape work. So the prisoners were divided into
messes, according to their several castes ; rations were
issued to them, and cooks were appointed to prepare
the daUy meals at a stated hour of the day. If the
cook were of a lower caste than the eaters, the neces-
sary result was the contamination of the food and
loss of caste by the whole mess. The new system,
therefore, was one likely to be misunderstood and
easily to be misinterpreted. Here, then, was one of
those openings which designing men were continually
on the alert to detect, and in a fitting hour it was
turned to account. Hot merely the inmates of the
gaols, but the inhabitants of the towns in which pri-

196 THE ADMINISmTlON OF lOED DALHOUSlE.

1S45-50. sons were located, were readily made to believe that
it was the intention of the British Government to
destroy the caste of the prisoners, and forcibly to
convert them to Christianity. It mattered not whe-
ther Brahmin cooks had or had not, in the first in-
stance, been appointed. There might be a Brahmin
cook to-day; and a low-caste man in his place to-
morrow. So the lie had some plausibility about it ;
and it went abroad that this assault upon the gaol-
birds was but the beginning of the end, and that by
a variety of different means the religions of the
country would soon be destroyed by the Government
of the Feringhees.

Reports of this kind commonly appear to be of
Hindoo origin ; for they are calculated primarily
to alarm the minds of the people on the score
of the destruction of caste. But it seldom hap-
pens that they are not followed by some ausiliary
lies expressly designed for Mahomedan reception.
The Mahomedans had some especial grievances of
their own. The tendency of our educational mea-
sures, and the aU-pervading Englishism with which
the country was threatened, was to lower the dignity
of Mahomedanism, and to deprive of their emoluments
many influential people of that intolerant faith. The
Moulavees were scarcely less alarmed by our innova-
tions than the Pundits. The Arabic of the one fared
no better than the Sanskrit of the other. The nse
of the Persian language in our law courts was abo-
lished ; new tests for admission into the Public Service
cut down, if they did not wholly destroy, their
chances of official employment. There was a general
inclination to pare away the privileges and , the per-
quisites of the principal Mahomedan seats of learning.
All the religious endovunents of the great Calcutta

MA.HOMEDAN ' ALARMS.

197

•Madrissa were aiiniliilated ; and tte prevalence of the 184S-i
English language, English learning, and English law,
made the Mahomedan doctors shrink into insignifi-
cance, whilst the resumption of rent-free tenures,
which, in many instances, grievously affected old
Mussulman families, roused their resentments more
than all the rest, and made them ripe for sedition.

A more active, a more enterprising, and a more in-
triguing race, than the Hindoos, the latter knew well
the importance of associating them in any design
against the State.* So their animosities were stimu-
lated, and their sympathies were enlisted, by a report,
sedulously disseminated, to the effect that the British
Govemnient were about to issue an edict prohibiting
circumcision, and. compelling Mahomedan women to
go abroad unveded.

Small chance would there have been of such a lie
as this finding a score of credulous Mussulmans to
•believe it, if it had not been for the little grain of
truth that there was in the story of the messing-
system in the gaols. The innovation had been origi-
nated some years before Lord Dalhousie appeared
upon the scene. At first it had been introduced with

* It must be admitted, hawever, to tbe English language, have pro-
that it is a moot question, in many duced tbe greatest discontent and
instances, "whether the first move- the bitterest animosity against our
ment were made by tbe Hindoos or government, finding that tbe en-
the Mahoniedans. Good autliorities forcement of tbe messing-system in
sometimes incline to the latter sup- tbe gaols had produced a consider-

{ )osition. Take, for example, the fol- able sensation amongst tbe people,
owing, which has reference to a se- were determined to improve the op-
ditious movement at Patna in the portunity, especially as our troops
cold season of 1845-416: "Erom were weak in numbers, and we were
inquiries I have made,’’ wrote Mr. ^posed to bepressedin the North-
Dampier, Superintendent of Police West.” Of the event to which this
in the Lower Provinces, “ in every refers, more detailed mention will be
quarter, I am of opinion that the found in a subsequent chapter of this
Mahomedans of these parts, amongst work, in connexion with the attempt
whom the resumption of the Maa- then made to corrupt the regiments
fee Tenures, the new educational at Dinapore.
system, and the encouragement given

198 THE ADMINISTEATION OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

184546. a discretion signifying & full knowledge of the lurking
danger ;* hut, as time advanced, one experiment fol-
lowed another, and some of the old caution was
perhaps relaxed. So in many places the prisoners
broke into rebellion and violently resisted the pro-
posed change. Eager and excited, under the influ-
ence of a common alarm, the townspeople cheered
them on, and were ready to aid them, with aU their
might, in what they believed to be the defence of
their religion. At Shahabad, Sarun, Behar, and
Patna, there were serious disturbances, and at a later
1853. period, Benares, the very nursery and hotbed of
Hindooism, the cherished home of the Pundits, was
saved only by' prudential concessions, Iron? becommg
the scene of a sanguinary outbreak.

Tiie Hindoo The experience thus gained of the extreme sensi-
ftndhisLotali. ^Yeness of the native mind, given up as it was to
gross delusions, does not appear to have borne the
fruit of increased caution and forbearance. For not
long afterwards another improvement in prison disci-
pline again stirred up revolt in the gaols ; and, for the
same reason as before, the people sided with the con-
victs. A Hindoo, or a Hindooised Mahomedan, is
nothing without his Lotah. A Lotah is a metal
drinking-vessel, which he religiously guards against
defilement, and which he holds as a cherished posses-
sion when he has nothing else belonging to him in
the world. But a brass vessel may be put to other
uses than that of holding water. It may brain a
magistrate,! flatten the face of a gaoler, and truly

* See Circular Orders of Jjieu- oiBfend the religious prejudices of the
tenaut-Governor of the North-West people,.orinjure the future prospects
Provinces, July^ 1841; — “Govern- of those who may be subjected to
ment are of opinion that these tnea- temporary imprisonment.”
sures ought not to he compulsorily f My earliest recollection of India
enforced, if there be any good gi’ound is associated with the sensation
to believe that they wiU violate or created in Calcutta, in April, 1834,

PRISON OUTBREAKS.

199

it was a formidable weapon in the hands of a despe-
rate man. So an attempt was made in some places
to deprive the prisoners of their lotahs, and to sub-
stitute earthenware vessels in their place. Here,
then, in the eyes of the people, was another insidious
attempt to convert prison discipline into a means of
reli^ous persecution — another attempt covertly to
reduce them aU to one caste. So the prisoners re-
sisted the experiment, and in more than one place
manifested their resentment with a fury which was
shared by the population of the towns. At Arrah
the excitement was so great that the guards were
ordered to fire upon the prisoners, and at Mozuffer-
pore, in Tirhoot, so fornoidable was the outburst of
popular indignation, that the magistrate, in grave
official language, described it as “ a furious and alto-
gether unexpected outbreak on the part of the people
of the town and district in support and sympathy
with the prisoners.” The rioters, it was said, “in-
cluded almost all the inhabitants of the town, as well
as a vast number of ryots, who declared that they
would not go away until the lotahs were restored;”
and so great was the danger of the prisoners escaping,
of their plundering the Treasury and pillaging the
town, before the troops which had been sent for could
be brought up, that the civil authorities deemed it
expedient to pacify the insurgents by restoring the
lotahs to the people in the gaols. And this was not
held at the time to be a sudden outburst of rash and
misguided ignorance, but the deliberate work of some
of the rich native inhabitants of the town, and some
of the higher native functionaries of our Civil
Courts.

wlien Mr. Richardson, magistrate of Alipore gaol by a blow from a bias*
the 24 Pergunnahs, was killed in lothi.

13Si.

200 THE ADSHNISTEATION DE, LOED DALHODSIE.

1856 . ItVas clear, iOideed, that the inflammability of the
native mind yras continually increasing ; and that
there •w'ere many influential persons, both Hindoo
and Mahomedah, running over with bitter resent-
ments against the English, who were eagerly awaiting
' a favourable opportunity to set all these combustible
materials in a blaze. The gaol-business was an ex-
periment,' and, ias far as it went, a successful one. But
it was not by an outbreak of the convict population
that the overthrow of the English was to be accom-
.plished. There was another^ class of men, equally
,undi-«' the control of the Government, whose cor-
ruption would far better repay the labours of the
-Moulayees and the Pundita.

1HE .SEP0T ARMY.

201

BOOK n.— THE SEPOY AEMY
£ 1756 — 1856 .]

CHAPTER I.

THE SEPOT AEMT OP IHB COMPAET— US EISE AlTD PROGEESS — KTcyiKST

irpriNr m Bengal — deteriorating inplijences — ^degradation op
, THE NATIVE OPFICER— THE REORGANISATION OP 1796 — PROGRESS OP IN-
NOVATION— THE MHTINT OP VELLORE— EATER SIGNS OP DISAEPECTION—

- causes op the MUTINT.

Whilst tlie hearts of the Aristocracy and of the
Priesthood of the country were thus turned against
the government of the English, there was a third
great class, esteemed to be more powerful than all,
whom it was believed that our policy had propitiated.
There was security in the thought that the Soldiery
were with us. It was the creed of English statesmen
that India had been won by the Sword, and must be
retained by the Sword. And so long as we held the
sword firmly in our hands, there was but litde appre-
hension of any internal danger. The British power
in the East was fenced in and fortified by an army
of three hundred thousand men.

A small part only of this Army was composed of
our own countrymen. Neither the manhood of Eng-
land nor the revenues of India could supply the
■means of defending the country only with British
troops. A large majority of our fighting-men were,
therefore natives of In^a, trained^ discaplined, and

1856 .

, 202 THE SEPOY AEMY — ^IlS EISE AND PROGRESS.

1766 - 1856 , equipped after the English fashion. We had first
learnt from the French the readiness ■with which the
“ Moors” and the “ Gentoos” could be made to adapt
themselves to the habits and forms of European war-
fare, and, for a hundred years, we had been im-
pro-ying on the lesson. Little by little, the handful
of Blacks which had helped Bobert Clive to win the
battle of Plassey had swollen into the dimensions of
a gigantic army. It had not gro'wn with the gro'wth
of the territory which it was intended to defend;
but still, nerved and strengthened by such European
regiments as the exigencies of the parent state could
spare for the service of the outlying dependency, it
was deemed to be of sufficient extent to support the
Government which maintained it against aU foreign
enmity and all intestine revolt.

It was, doubtless, a strange and hazardo'us experi-
ment upon the forbearance of these disciplined native
fighting- men, held only by the bondage of the Salt in
allegiance to a trading Company which had usurped
the authority of their Princes and reduced their
countrymen to subjection. But it was an experi-
ment which, at the date of the commencement of
this history, had stood the test of more than a cen-
tury of probation. The fidelity of the Native Army
of India was an established article of our faith. Tried
in many severe conjunctures, it had seldom been
found wanting. The British Sepoy had faced death
without a fear, and encountered every kind of suf-
fermg and privation without a murmur. Commanded
by officers whom he trusted and loved, though of
another colour and another creed, there was nothing,
it was said, which he would not do, there was no-
thing which he would not endure. In an extremity
of hunger, he had spontaneously offered his scanty

DALHOUSIE OK THE SEPOY AEMY.

203

food to sustain the rohuster ener^es of his English 1766-I86a
comrade. Hp had planted the colours of his regi-
ment on a spot 'which European valour and perse-
verance had failed to reach. He had subscribed
from his slender earnings to the support of our
European wars. He had cheerfully consented, when,
he knew that his Government was in need, to forego
that regular receipt of pay, which is the very life-
blood of foreign service. History for a hundred
years had sparkled with examples of his noble
fidelity ; and there were few who did not believe, in
spite of some transitory aberrations, that he would he
true to the last line of the chapter.

If there were anything, therefore, to disturb the 1850.
mind of Lord Dalhousie when he laid down the reins
of government on that memorable spring morning,
the trouble which oppressed him was not the growth
of any mistrust of the fidelity of the Sepoy. “ Hardly
any circumstance of his condition,” he said, in his
Farewell Minute, “ is in need of improvement.” And
there were few who, reading this passage, the very
slenderness of which indicated a more settled faith in
the Sepoy than the most turgid sentences could have
expressed, did not feel the same assurance that in
that direction there was promise only of continued
repose. It was true that Asiatic armies were ever
prone to revolt — ^that we had seen Mahratta armies
and Sikh armies, Arab armies and Goorkha armies,
all the militaiy races of India indeed, at some time
or other rising in mutiny against their Government,
and perhaps overthrowing it. But fifty years had
passed away since the minds of our British rulers had
been seriously disturbed by a fear of military revolt,
and that half century, it was believed, had brought
full conviction home to the understanding of the Sepoy

204 THE SEfOT AEMY— ITS EISE AND PEOGEESS.

1856. that the Company was a good and generous master,
whose colours it was a privilege to bear. Outwardly,
there was only a great calm ; and it was not thought
that beneath that smooth surface there were any
latent dangers peculiar to the times. The Sepoy was
esteemed to be “^faithful to a proverb;” and his
fidelity was the right arm of our strength.

rirst Sepoy Qur first Sepoy levies were raised in the Southern

Bombay and Peumsula, when the EngEsh and the French powers

Madras. weTQ Contending for the dominant influence in that
part of the country. They were few in number, and
at the outset commonly held in reserve to support
our European fighting-men. But, little by little, they
proved that they were worthy to be entrusted with
higher duties, and, once trusted, they went boldly to
the front. Under native commandants, for the most
part Mahomedans or high-caste Rajpoot Hindoos, but
disciplined and directed by the EngEsh captain, their
pride was flattered and their energies Stimulated by
the victories they gained. How they fought in the
attack of Madura, how they fought in the defence of
Arcot, how they crossed bayonets, foot to foot, with
the best French troops at Cuddalore, historians have
deEghted to teU. All the power and all the respon-
sibiEty, aU the honours and rewards, were not then
monopoEsed by the EngEsh captains. Large bodies
of troops were sometimes despatched, on hazardous
enterprises, under the independent command of a
native leader, and it was not thought an offence to a
European soldier to send him to fight under a black
commandant. That black commandant was then a
great man, in spite of his colour. He rode on horse-
back at the head of his meuj and a moimted staff*

BIETH OE THE BENGAL AEMT.

205

o&cer, a native adjutant, carried Ms commands to 1756-57.
the Soubahdars of the respective companies. And a
brave man or a skilful leader was honoured for his
bravery or his skill as much under the folds of a
turban as under a round hat.

When the great outrage of the Black Hole called The Benpil
Clive’s retributory army to Bengal, the English had
no Sepoy troops on the banks of the Hooghly. But
there were fourteen native battalions in Madras,
numbering in all ten thousand men, and Clive took
two of these with him, across the black water, to
Calcutta. Arrived there, and the first blow struck,
he began to raise native levies in the neighbourhood^
and a battalion of Bengal Sepoys fought at Plassey
side by side with their comrades from Madras. Eight
years after this victory, wMch placed the great pro-
vince of Bengal at our feet, the one battalion had
swollen into nineteen, each of a thousand strong. To
each battalion three English officers were appointed
— ^picked men from the English regiments.* The
native element was not so strong as in the Southern
Army ; but a good deal of substantive authority still
remained with the black officers.

And that the Bengal Sepoy was an excellent sol-
dier, was freely declared by men who had seen the
best troops of the European powers. Drilled and
disciplined in all essential points after the English
model, the native soldier was not called upon to
divest himself of all the distinctive attributes of his
•race. Nothing that his creed abhorred or Ms caste
•rejected was forced upon hhn by his Christian
masters. He lived apart, cooked apart, ate apart,

■ after the fasMon of his tribe. No one grudged him

' , In 1765, tlie number was in- native commandant and ten Soubah-
creased to five* There were then a dars to each battalion. — Broom$^

206 THE SEPOY AEMY — ^ITS MSB AND PEOGEES3

1764.
Tlie Mrst
Mutiny in
Bengal.

Ms necklace, Ms ear-rings, the caste-marks on his
forehead, or the beard which lay upon his breast.
He had no fear of being forcibly converted to the re-
ligion of the white men, for he could not see that the
white men had any religion to which they could
convert Mm. There was no interference from the
Adjutant-General’s ofS.ce, no paper government, no
perpetual reference to order-books bristling with in-
novations; and so he was happy and contented,
obedient to the officers who commanded him, and
faithful to the Government he served.

His predominant sentiment, indeed, was fidelity to
his Salt, or, in other words, to the hand that fed him.
But if he thought that the hand was unrighteously
closed to withhold from him what he believed his due,
he showed himself to be most tenacious of his rights,
and he resolutely asserted them. This temper very
soon manifested itself. The Bengal Army was but
seven years old, when it first began to evince some
symptoms of a mutinous spirit. But in this instance
the contagion came from the Europeans. The white
troops had mutinied because the promise of a donation
to the Army from Meer Jaffier had halted on the way
to performance ; and when the money came, the Sepoys
followed their example, because they thought that they
were denied their rightful share of the Prize. They
had just ground of complaint in this instance, and
they were soothed by a reasonable concession.* But
the fire had not burnt itself out ; and before the close
of the year some regiments were again in rebellion.
One battalion seized and imprisoned ite English officers,
and vowed that it would serve no more. It was one
of those childish ebullitions, of which we have since

* Whilst a private of the Euro- six. Tlie share of tlie latter was
pean Army was to receive forty ru- afterwards fixed at twenty rupees,
pees, it was proposed to give a Sepoy

BLOWN FROM THE GUNS

207

seen so many in the Bengal Army. But it was plain 1764
that the evil was a growing one, and to be arrested
with a strong hand. So twenty-four Sepoys were
tried, at Chuprah, by a drum-head Court-Martial, for
mutiny and desertion, found guilty, and ordered to be
blown away from the guns.

A century has passed since the order was carried
iato execution, and many strange and terrible scenes
have been witnessed by the Sepoy Army ; but none
stranger or more terrible than this. The troops
were drawn up, European and Native, the guns were
loaded, and the prisoners led forth to suffer. Major
Hector Munro, the chief of the Bengal Army, super-
intended that dreadful punishment parade, and gave
the word of command for the first four of the criminals
to be tied up to the guns. The order was being
obeyed ; the men were being bound ; when four tall,
stately Grenadiers stepped forward from among' the
condemned, and represented that as they had always
held the post of honour in life, it was due to them that
they should take precedence in death. The request
was granted ; a brief reprieve was given to the men
first led to execution ; the Grenadiers were tied to
the guns, and blown to pieces at the word of com-
mand.

Then all 1 trough the Sepoy battalions on that ghastly
parade, there ran a murmur and a movement, and it
seemed that the black troops, who greatly outnum-
bered the white, were about to strike for the rescue of
their comrades. There were signs and sounds not to
be misunderstood ; so the officers of the native re^-
ments went to the front and told Munro that their
men were not to be trusted ; that the Sepoys had re-
solved not to suffer the execution to proceed. On the
issue of that reference depended the fate of Ihe Bengal
Army. The English troops on that parade were few.

isos THE SEPOY iJRMY— E^E Aib PEOGRESS.

176t. There was scarcely a man among them not iniof ed' td
tears by what he had seen ; but Munro! knew that
they could be trusted, and that they could defend the
guns, which once turned upon the natives would have
rendered victory certain. So he closed the Europeans
on to the battery; the G-renadiers upon one side, the
Marines on the other, loaded the pieces with grape,
and sent the Sepoy officers back to their battalion’s.
This done, he gave the word of command to the native
regiments to ground arms. In the presence df those
loaded guns, and of the two lines of white troops
ready to* &e upon them, to have disobeyed would
have been madness. They moved to the word of
command, laid down their arms, and when another
word of command was ^ven, which sent the Sepoys
to a distance from their grounded muskets, and th^
Europeans with the guns took ground, dn the inter-
vening space, the danger had passed away. The
native troops were now completely at Munro’s mercy,’
and the execution went on in their presence to its
dreadful close. Twenty men were blown away from
the guns at that piarade. Four were reserved for
execution at another station, as a warning to other
regiments, which appeared to be mutinously disposed,
and six more, tried and sentenced at Bankepore^ were
blown away at that place. Terrible as was this
example, -it was the act of a merciful and humane
man, and Mercy and Humanity smiled sorrowfully,-
but approvingly, upon it. It taught the Sepoy Arrhy
that hd Bntish soldier, black or white, can rebel
against the State without bringing down upon himself
fearful retribution, and by the sacrifice of a few'
guilty forfeited lives checked the progress of a disease
which, if weakly suffered to run its course, uugfit
have resulted in the slaught^ of thousands.

CLIVE AND THE BENGAL OFFICERS. 209

The lesson was not thrown away. The Sepoy learnt
to respect the stern authority of the Law, and felt
that the hTemesis of this new. Government of the
British was certain in its operations, and not to be
escaped. And the time soon came when his com.
stancy was tested, and found to have the ring of
the true metal. The European officers broke into
rebellion; but the natives did not falter in their Mutiny of u.t
allegiance. Conceiving themselves aggrieved by the ol^.
withdrawal of the extraordinary allowances which
they had enjoyed in the field, the former determined
to remonstrate against the reduction, and to clamour
for what they called their rights. In each brigade
meetings were called, consultations were held, and
secret committees were formed, under the disguise of
Freemasons’ Lodges. Headstrong and obstinate, the
officers swore to recover the double batta which had
been taken from them, or to resign the service in a
body. Large sums of money were subscribed, and
the Company’s civilians contributed to the fund, which
was to enable their military brethren to resist the
authority of their common masters. It was a for-
midable conjuncture, and one to try the courage
even of a Clive. The orders of the Company were
peremptory ; and he was not a man to lower the au-
thority of Government by yielding to a threat. But
he could not disguise from himself that there were
contingencies which might compel him to make a
temporary concession to the insubordinates ; one was
an incursion of the Mahrattas,* the other the defection
of the Sepoys. Had the native soldiers sympathised
with and supported the English officers, the impetus

* “ la case the Mahrattas should case, jou have autlionty to make
still appear to iatend an invasion, terms with the officers of your hri-
or Jn case you. apprehend a mutiny gade .” — Lord Clive (oCoLSmUhyMaj^
among the troops, but in no other 11, 1766. [See also following notejj

210 THE SEPOY AEMY — ^ITS EISE AND PROGRESS.

1766 , thus given to the movement "would have overborne
all power of resistance, and Government must have
succumbed to the crisis. In this emergency, Clive
saw clearly the importance of securing “ the fidelity
and attachment of the Soubahdars, or commanding
officers of the black troops,” and he wrote urgently
to his lieutenants. Smith and Fletcher, instructing
them to attain this end. But the Sepoys had never
wavered. True to their colours, they were ready at
the word of command to fire on the white mutineers.
Assured of this, Clive felt that the danger was over —
felt that he could hold out against the mutiny of the
English officers, even though the European troops
should break into revolt,*

The founders of the Native Army had conceived
the idea of a force recruited from among the people
of the country, and commanded for the most part by
men of their own race, but of higher social position
— ^men, in a word, of the master-class, accustomed to
exact obedience from their inferiors. But it was the
inevitable tendency of our increasing power in India
to oust the native functionary from his seat, or to lift
him from his saddle, that the white man might fix him-
self there, with all the remarkable tenacity of his race.
An Englishman believe that he can do all things
better than his neighbours, and, therefore, it was doubt-

* “The black Sepoy officers, as European battalion had got under
well as men, have given great proofs arms, and were preparing to leave
of fidelity and steadiness upon this the fort and follow their officers, and
oceasion, and so lon^ as they remain the artillery were about to do the
so, nothing is to be apprehended same, but the unexpected appear-
from the European soldierj, even if ance of this firm line of Sepoys, with
they should be mutinously inclined.” their bayonets fixed and arms loaded,
t& Smithy 1760, MS, threw them into some confusion, of

Records. — ^T*ney had just afforded a which Captain Smith took advan-
"stjriking proof that they were pre- ta^e, and warned tliem, that if they
pared, if necessary, to fire upon the did not retire peaceably into their
Europeans. See Broome’s History of barracks, he would fire upon them
• the Bengal Army, vol. i. 6fi9 ; “-The at once/’

DEGKADATION OF THE NATIVE OFFICER,

211

less with, a sincere conviction of the good we were doing 17 S’ i:

that we gradually took into our own hands the reins of
office, civil and military, and left only the drudgery
and the dirty work to be done by the people of the
soil. Wkether, if we had fairly debated the ques-
tion, it would have appeared to us a safer and a wiser
course to leave real military power in the hands of
men who might turn it against us, than to cast upon
the country a dangerous class of malcontents identi-
fying the rise of the British power with their own
degradation, it may now be difficult to determine.

But any other result than that before us would have
been utterly at variance with the genius of the
English nation, and, theorise as we might, was not to
be expected. So it happened, in due course, that
the native officers, who had exercised real authority
in their battalions, who had enjoyed opportunities of
personal distinction, who had felt an honourable
pride in their position, were pushed aside by an in-
cursion of English gentlemen, who took aU the sub-
stantive power into their hands, and left scarcely
more than the shado w of rank to the men whom
they had supplanted. An English subaltern was Increase of
appointed to every company, and the native officer o^ers.
then began to collapse into something little better
than a name.

As the degradation of the native officer was thus
accomplished, the whole character of the Sepoy army
was changed. It ceased to be a profession in which
men of high position, accustomed to command,
might satisfy the aspirations and expend the ener-
gies of their lives. All distinctions were effaced.

The native service of the Company came down to a
dead level of common soldiering, and rising from the
ranks by a painfully slow process to merely nominal

p 2

212 THE SEPOT AEUT — ITS EISE AKD PROGRESS.

1781-9G. command. There was employment for the many;
there was no longer a career for the few. Thence-
forth, therefore, we dug out the materials of our
army from the lower strata of society, and the gentry
of the land, seeking military service, carried their
•amhitions beyond the red line of the British frontier,
and olfered their swords to the Princes of the Native
States.

But in those lower strata there were elementary
diversities .of which in England we know nothing.
The lower orders amongst us are simply the lower
orders — aU standing together on a common level
of social equality; we recognise no distinctions
among them except in respect of the callings which
they foUow. Thus one common soldier differs only
from another common soldier in the height of his
stature, or the breadth of his shoulders, or the steadi-
ness of his drill. But in India the great institution
Caste, of Caste — at once the most exclusive and the most
levelling system in the world — ^may clothe the filthiest,
feeblest mendicant with aU the dignities and powers
of the proudest lord. So, in our native army, a
Sepoy was not merely a Sepoy. He might be a Brah-
min, or he noight be a Pariah ; and though they
might stand beside each other shoulder to shoulder,
foot to foot, on the parade-ground, there was as wide
a gulf between them in the Lines, as in our own
country yawns between a dustman and a duke.

In the Bengal Army the Sepoys were chiefly of
high Caste. Deriving its name from the country in
which it was first raised, not from the people com-
posing it, it was recruited in the first instance from
among the floating population which the Mahomedau
conquest had brought from the northern provinces —
from Rohilcund, from Oude. from the country be-

CASTE IN THE AEMT.

213

tween tlie two rivers ; men of migratory habits, and 17S4-96>
martial instincts, and sturdy frames, differiag in all
respects, mind and body, from tbe timid, feeble deni-
zens of Bengal. Tbe Jat, tbe Rajpoot, and tbe
priestly Brabmin, took service, witb tbe Patan, under
tbe great white chief, who bad bumbled the pride of
Soorajab Dowlab. And as time advanced, and tbe
bttle local militia swelled into tbe bulk of a magnifi-
cent army, tbe aristocratic element was stiU. dominant
in tbe Bengal Army. But tbe native troops of
Madras and Bombay were made up from more mixed
and less dainty materials. There were men in tbe
ranks of those armies of all nations and of all castes,
and tbe more exclusive soon ceased from their exclu-
siveness, doing things which their brethren in tbe
Bengal Army shrunk from doing, and solacing their
pride witb the reflection that it was the “ custom of
tbe country.” Each system bad its advocates. Tbe
Bengal Sepoy, to the outward eye, was tbe finest
soldier ; tallest, best-formed, and of tbe noblest pre-
sence. But be was less docile and serviceable than
tbe Sepoy of tbe Southern and tbe Western Armies.

In tbe right mood there was no better soldier in tbe
world, but be was not always in tbe right mood ; and
tbe humours which be displayed were ever a source
of trouble to bis commanders, and sometimes of dan-
ger to tbe State.

In an army so constituted, tbe transfer of all sub- The Sepoy
stantive authority to a handful of alien ofi&cers
might have been followed by a fatal collapse of tbe
whole system, but for one fortunate circumstance,
which sustained its vitality. The officers appointed
to command tbe Sepoy battabons were picked men;
men chosen from tbe European regiments, not merely
as good soldiers, skilled in their , professional duties,

214 THE SEPOT AEMY — ^ITS RISE iUD PROGRESS.

ri84-86. but as gentlemen of sound judgment and good
temper, acquainted ■with the languages and the
habits of the people of the country, and prone to
respect the prejudices of the soldiery. The command
of a native battalion "was one of the highest objects
of ambition. It conferred large powers and often
great wealth upon the Sepoy officer; and though
the system was one pregnant with abuses, which
we see clearly in these days, it contained that
great principle of cohesion which attached the Eng-
lish officer and the native soldier to each other —
cohesion, which the refinements of a later civilisation
were doomed rapidly to dissolve.

1736. It lasted out the century, but scarcely survived it*
The English Sepoy- officer ha-dng become a great
substantive fact, not a mere excrescence upon the
general body of the English Army, it became ne-
cessary to define his position. He had many great
advantages, but he had not rank; and the Com-
pany’s officer found himself continually superseded by
younger men in the King’s army. Very reasonably,
if not always very temperately, he began then to
assert his rights ; and the result was an entire reor-

* That the national basis, which command of this party,” says the
had originally distinguished the biographer, “ went finsign John
foundation of the Madras Army, did Malcolm. This was his first service ;
not very long survive tlie establish- and it was long remembered by
ment of the reformed system of Ben- others than the youthful hero him-
gal, and that the native officers soon self. When the detachment met the
lost the power and the dignity in prisoners’ escort, a bright-faced,
which they had once rejoiced, may healthy English hoy was seen by the
be gathere'd from an early incident in latter riding up to them on a rough
the Life of Sir John Malcolm. It pony. Dallas asked him after his
was in 1784, when an exchange of commanding officer. ‘ I am the corn-
prisoners with Tippoo had been ne- manding officer,’ said young Mal-
gotiated, that a detachment of two colm,” As Malcolm was born in
companies of Sepoys was sent out 1769, he must at this time have been
from our side of the Mysore frontier a hoy of fifteen ; yet he commanded
to meet the escort under Major a detachment of two companies of
Dallas conveying the English pri- Sepoys, and all the cld native officers
soners from Seringapatam. “ In attached to them.

THE EEOEGAHISATION OF 1796.

215

ganisation of the Company’s army, -which greatly im-
proved the status of its old officers and opened a door
for the employment of a large number of others. By the
regulations then framed, two battalions of Sepoys were
formed into one regiment, to which the same number
of officers were posted as to a regiment in the King’s
army, and all took rank according to the date of
their commissions. It was believed that the increased
number of European officers would add to the effi-
ciency of the Native Army. But it was admitted,
even by those who had been most active in working
out the new scheme, that it did not develop all the
good results with which it was believed to be laden.
The little authority, the little dignity, which still
clung to the position of the native officers was then
altogether effaced by this new incursion of English
gentlemen and the discontent, which had been
growing up in the minds of the soldiery, began then
to bear bitter fruit.

But this was not all. The new regulations, which
so greatly improved the position of the Company’s
officers, and in no respect more than in that of the
pensions which they were then permitted to enjoy,
held out great inducements to the older officers of the
Company’s army to retire from active service, and to
spend the remainder of their days at home. Many of
the old commandants then prepared to leave the bat-
talions over which they had so long exercised paternal
authority, and to give up their places to stran-
gers. Not only was there a change of men, but a
change also of system. The English officer rose by
seniority to command. The principle of selection

^ It} was alleged to be an advan- would obviate the necessity of ever
tage of the new system that tlie in- sending out a detachment under
creased number or English officers native command.

1796

216 THE SEPOY ARMY — ^ITS RISE AND PROGRESS.

1796 was abandoned. And men, who could scarcely call
for a glass of water in the language of the countiy, or
define the difference between a Hindoo and a Ma-
homedan, found themselves invested with responsi-
bilities which ought to have devolved only on men of
large local experience and approved good judgment
and temper.

riie Mysore But the evil results of the change were not imme-
diately apparent. The last years of the eighteenth, and
the first years of the nineteenth century were years of
active Indian warfare. In the Mysore and in theMah-
ratta countries the Sepoy had constant work, under
jrreat generals whom he honoured and trusted: he
had strong faith in the destiny of the Company ; and
his pride was flattered by a succession of brilliant
victories. But it is after such wars as those of Harris,
Lake, and Wellesley, when a season of stagnation
succeeds a protracted period of excitement, that the
discipline of an army, whether in the East or in the
West, is subjected to its severest trials. All the
physical and mDral properties which have ’ so long
sustained it in high health and perfect efficiency then
seem to collapse; and the soldier, nerveless and
languid, readily succumbs to the deteriorating in-
fluences by which he is surrounded. And so it
was with the Sepoy after those exhausting wars. He
was in the state which, of all others, is most suscep-
tible of deleterious impressions. And, unhappily,
there was one especial source of annoyatnce and alarm
to irritate and disquiet him in the hour of peace.
Amidst the stem realities of active warfare, the Euro-
pean officer abjures the pedantries of the drill-sergeant
and the fopperies of the regimental tailor. He has no
time for small things ; no heart for trifles. It is
enough for him, that his men are in a condition to

DRESS AND DRILL.

217

fight battles and to win them. But in Peace he 1805.
sometimes shrivels into an Arbiter of Drill and Dress,
and worries in time the best of soldiers into malcon-
tents and mutineer.

And so it was that, after the fierce excitement of
the Mysore and Mahratta wars, there arose among our
English officers an ardour for military improvement ;
and the Sepoy, who had endured for years, without a
murmur, all kinds of hardships and privations, under
canvas and on the line of march, felt that life was less
endurable in cantonments than it had been in the
field, and was continually disturbing himself, in his
matted hut, about the new things that were being
forced upon him. All sorts of novelties were bristling
up in his path. He vras to be drilled after a new
English fashion. He was to be dressed after a
new English fashion. He was to be shaved after
a new English fashion. He was not smart enough
for the Martinets who had taken him in hand to
polish him up into an English soldier. They were
stripping him, indeed, of his distinctive Oriental cha-
racter ; and it was not long before he began to see in
these efforts to Anglicise him something more than
the vexatious innovations and crude experiments of
European military reform.

To these annoyances and vexations the Madras Matinj of
Army were especially subjected. Composed as were its
battalions of men of different castes, and not in any
way governed by caste principles, they were held to be
peculiarly accessible to innovation; and, little by
little, aU the old outward characteristics of the native
soldier were effaced, and new things, upon the most
approved European pattern, substituted in their place.

218 THE SEPOY AEMY — ITS BISE AND PE06EESS.

1805-6, At last the Sepoy, forbidden to wear the distiriguisb-
ing marks of Caste on bis forebead, stripped of bis
ear-rings, to’ wbicb, by ties abke of vanity and super-
stition, be was fondly attached,* and ordered to shave
himself according to a regulation cut,f was put into
a stiff round hat, like a Pariah drummer’s, with a flat
top, a leather cockade, and a standing feather. It was
no longer called a “ turband it was a hat or cap ; in
the language of the natives, a to^pi ; and a topi-wallah,
or hat-wearer, was in their phraseology a synonym
for a Feringhee or Christian.

The Sepoy is not logical, but he is credulous and
suspicious. It was not difficult to persuade him that
there were hidden meanings and occult designs in all
this assimilation of the native soldier’s dress to that of
the European fighting-man. The new hat was not
merely an emblem of Christianity, and therefore
possessed of a grave moral significance, but materially,
also, it was discovered to be an abomination. It was
made in part of leather prepared from the skin of the
unclean hog, or of the sacred cow, and was, therefore,
an offence and a desecration alike to Mahomedan and
Hindoo. The former had no distinguishing marks of
caste to be rubbed off on parade with a dirty stick, but
he venerated his beard and his ear-rings, and, under
the force of contact and example, he had developed
many strong generic resemblances to the caste-
observing Hindoo. The Mahomedan of India differs

* Bj the Maliomedan Sepoy the wear ear-rings when dressed in his
ear-ring was often worn as a charm, uniform; and it is further directed.
It was given to him at his birth, and that at all parades, and on all duties,
dedicated to some patron saint. every soldier of the battalion shall

t See the following, Para. 10, be clean-shaved on the chin. It is
Sec. 11, Standing Orders of Madras directed, also, that uniformity shall,
Army : “ It is ordered by the Begu- as far as is practicable, be preserved
iallons that a native soldier shall not in regard to the quantity and shape
mark his face to denote his caste, or of the hair on the upper lip.”

THE HINDOOISED MAHOMEDAN.

219

greatly in Ills habits and bis feebngs from tbe Ma- ! 1306.
bomedan of Central Asia or Arabia; be accommo-
dates bunself, in some sort, to tbe usages of tbe
country, and being tbus readUy accbmatised, be
strikes strong root in tbe soil. Cbristianity does not
differ more than Mabomedanism, doctrinally or ethi-
cally, from the rebgion of tbe Hindoos; but in
tbe one case there may be social fusion, in the
other it is impossible. Even in tbe former instance,
tbe fusion is imperfect, and there is in this partial
assimilation of races one of tbe chief elements of our
security in India. But tbe security derived from this
source is also imperfect ; and circumstances may at
any time, by an unfortunate coincidence, appeal to
tbe ethnical resemblances and tbe common instincts
of different nationalities, in such a manner as to excite
in both tbe same fears and to raise tbe same aspira-
tions, and so to cause all diversities to be for a time
forgotten. And such a coincidence appears now to
have arisen. Different races, moved by tbe sense of
a common danger, and roused by a common hope,
forgot their differences, and combined against a
common foe.

And so it happened that in the spring of 1806, the
Hindoo and Mabomedan Sepoy in tbe Southern
Peninsula of India were talking together, like caste-
brothers, about their grievances, and weaving plots
for their deliverance. It is partly by accident, partly
by design, that such plots ripen in tbe spring. By
accident, because relieved from cold-weather exercises,
parades, field-days, and inspections, tbe soldier has
more leisure to ruminate bis wrongs, and more time
to discuss them. By design, because tbe coming beats
and rains pai’alyse tbe activities of tbe white man, and
are great gain to tbe native mutineer. In April and

220 THE SEPOr AEMT — ^ITS MSE AND PEOGEESS.

J 806 . May the English oflScer sees little of his men ; his
visits to the Lines are few ; few are his appearance on
parade. Hels languid and prostrate. The morning
and evening ride are as much as his energies can
compass. The Sepoy then, disencumbered of dress
and dismissed from drill, can afford to snatch some
hours from sleep to listen to any strange stories, told
by wandering mendicants, with the odour of sanctified
filth about them, and to discuss the most incredible
fables with all the gravity of settled belief. There is
always more or less of this vain talk. It amuses the
Sepoy and for a while excites him with a visionary
prospect of higher rank and better pay, under some
new dispensation. But he is commonly content to
regard this promised time as a far-off Hegira, and, as
he turns himself round on his charpoy for another
nap, he philosophically resolves in the mean while to
eat the Company’s salt in peace, and to wait God’s
pleasure in quietude and patience.

But there was at this time something more to excite
the imagination of the Sepoy in Southern India than
the ordinary vain talk of the Bazaars and the Lines.
The travelling fakeers were more busy with their in-
ventions ; the rumours which they carried from place
to place were more ominous ; the prophecies which
they recited were more significant of speedy fulfilment.
There was more point in the grotesque performances
of the puppet-shows — more meaning in the rude
ballads which were sung and the scraps of verse
which were cited. Strange writings were dropped by
unseen hands, and strange placards posted on the
walls. At all the large military stations in the
Carnatic and in the Deccan there was an uneasy feel-
ing as of something coming. There were manifold
signs which seemed to indicate that the time to strike

■ CMEVANCES OF THE SEPOTS.

221

liad arrived, and so tlie Sepoy began to take stock of 1805,
his grievances and to set before him all the benefits of
change.

The complaints of the Sepoy were many. If he
were to pass his whole life in the Company’s service
and do what he might, he could not rise higher than
the rank of Soubahdar ; there had been times when
distinguished native soldiers had been appointed to
high and lucrative commands, and had faithfully done
their duty ; but those times had passed, and, instead of
being exalted, native of&cers were habitually degraded.,

A Sepoy on duty always presented or carried arms to
an English officer, but an English soldier suffered a
native officer to pass by without a salute. Even an
English Sergeant commanded native officers of the
highest rank. On parade, the English officers made
mistakes, used the wrong words of command, then
threw the blame upon the Sepoys and reviled them.

Even native officers, who had grown grey in the
service, were publicly abused by European striplings.

On the line of march the native officers were com-
pelled to hve in the same tents with the common
Sepoys, and had not, as in the armies of native
pbtentates, elephants or palanquins assigned to them
for their conveyance, how great soever the distance
which they were obliged to traverse. And if they rode
horses or ponies, purchased from their savings, the
English officer frowned at them as upstarts. “The
Sepoys of the Nizam and the Mahratta chiefs,” they
said, “ are better off than our Soubahdars and
Jemidars.” Then it was urged that the Company’s
officers took the Sepoys vast distances from their
homes, where they died in strange places, and that
thdr wives and children were left to beg their bread ;
that native Princes, when they conquered new

222 THE SEPOT AEMT — ^ITS RISE AND PROOKESS.

18C6. coTinti’ies, gave grants of lands to distinguislied
soldiers, but that tbe Company only gave them sweet
words ; that the concubines of the English gentlemen
were better paid than the native officers, and their
grooms and grass-cutters better than the native
soldiers ; that the English officers could import into
their Zenanas the most beautiful women in the
country, whilst the natives hardly dared look at the
slave-girls ; and, to crown aU, it was declared that
General Arthur Wellesley had ordered his wounded
Sepoys to be mercilessly shot to death.

Preposterous as were some of the fables with which
this bin of indictment was crusted over, there was
doubtless beneath it a large substratum of truth.
But the alleged grievances were, for the most part,
chronic ailments which the Sepoy had been long
enduring, and might have endured still longer, pa-
tiently and silently, had they not culminated in
the great outrage of the round hat, with its auxiliary
vexations of the shorn beard, the effaced caste-marks,
and the despoiled ear-rings. Then, it was not diffi-
cult to teach him that this aggregation of wrongs
had become intolerable, and that the time had
come for him to strike a blow in defence of his
rights. And the teacher was not far distant. The
great Mahomedan usurpation of Mysore had been
overthrown, but the representatives of the usurper
were still in the country. The family of the slain
Sultan were living in the fort of Vellore, as the
clients rather than the captives of the English, with
abundant wealth at their command, and a numerous
body of Mussulman attendants. But generous as
was the treatment they had received, and utterly at
variance with their own manner of dealing with
fallen enemies, they had not ceased to bewail the

THE MYSOfiE PRINCES.

223

loss of tlie sovereign power which had passed from 1S08.
their House, or to hate the conquerors who had
unkinged them. In the luxurious idleness of Vel-
lore they dreamed of the recovery of their lost
empire. There was but one way to the attainment
of that cherished object, and that way was through
the corruption of the Sepoy. The time was pro-
pitious, and the work commenced.

It ought not to have been easy work, but so it
was. If there had been relations of confidence be-
tween the English officer and the native soldier, the
corruption of the latter would have been a task of
sore difficulty and danger ; but those relations were
not what they had been a few years before. It was
not that the officers themselves had deteriorated, but
that a new system had been introduced, which, greatly
improving their state and prospects, and, it may be
said, permanently increasing their efficiency as a
body, stiQl caused some temporary relaxation of the
ties which bound them to the soldiery of the country.

The new regulations of 1796, it has been said, opened
out to the elder generation of officers a door by which
they might retire on advafitageous terms from the
service. Some took their pensions at once; but^a
period of active warfare supervened, and many
veteran officers waited for the restoration of peace
to take advantage of the boon that was offered.

They went ; and a new race of men, young and inex-
perienced, took their places. And so, for a time, the
Sepoy did not know his officer, nor the officer his
men; they met almost as strangers on parade, and
there was little or no communion between them. It
was a transition-period of most untoward occurrence,
when so many other adverse influences were destroy-
ing the discipline of the army ; and, therefore, again

1806.

224 THE SEPOY AEMY— ITS MSE AND PEOGEESS.

I say tte hour was propitious, aud the work of cor-
ruption commenced.

May 7. At the end of the first week of May, as Adjutant-
the^^iny. General Agnew was rising from his work, in the
white heat of Fort St. George, there came tidings to
his otfice of general disaffection among the native
troops at Vellore. One battalion, at least, already had
broken into open mutiny. The chief of the Madras
army, Sir John Cradock, had retired for the even-
ing to his garden-house in the pleasant suburbs of
Madras, so Agnew drove out to see him with the im-:
portant missive in his hand. A few days afterwards,
Cradock was posting to Vellore. Arrived there, he
found that there had been no exaggeration in the
reports which had been furnished to him, but that
more judicious treatment at the outset might have
allayed the excitement among the troops, and re-
stored the confidence of the Sepoy. So said a Court
of Inquiry ; so said the Commander-in-Chief. A
gentle sudorific, almost insensibly expelling the pent-
up humours, may suffice at the beginning, though
only much blood-letting can cure at the end. But
ailments of this kind, in the military body, seldom
reveal themselves in their full significance until' the
time for gentle treatment is past. When Cradock
went to Vellore no mere explanations could repair
the mischief that had been done. The mutinous
troops were sent down to the Presidency, and others
substituted for them.' Military discipline was vindi-
cated for the time by a court-martial, and two .of the
ringleaders were sentenced to be — flogged. But the
infection still clung to Vellore. The whole native
garrison was tainted and corrupted.

Nor was it a mere local epidemic. At other military
stations in the Carnatic there was si mila r excitement.

IXCAUTION OF GOYEENMEXT. 225

Midnight meetings were being held in the Lines;
oaths of secresy were being administered to the
Sepoys ; threats of the most terrible vengeance were
fulminated against any one daring to betray them.
The native officers took the lead, the men followed,
some roused to feelings of resentment, others huddling
together like sheep, under the influence of a vague
fear. In the bungalows of the English captains there
was but small knowledge of what was passing in the
Sepoys’ Lines, and if there had been more, discretion
would probably have whispered that in such a case
“ silence is gold.” For when in the high places of
Government there is a general disinclination to believe
in the existence of danger, it is scarcely safe for men
of lowlier station to say or to do anything indicating
suspicion and alarm.

At Vellore, after the first immature demonstration,
there was a lull; and the quietude had just the effect
that it was intended to have ; it disarmed the sus-
picion and suspended the vigilance of the English,
The most obvious precautions were neglected. Even
the significant fact that the first open manifestation
of disaffection had appeared under the shadow of the
asylum of the Mysore Princes, had not suggested any
special associations, or indicated the direction in which
the watchful eye of the British Government should
be turned. Nothing was done to strengthen the Eu-
ropean garrison of Vellore.* No pains were taken
to cut off the perilous intercourse which existed be-

* “ That neither the Government Princes. No precautions seem to
nor the Commander-iu-Chief enter- have been taken within the Port, and
tained any serious apprehensions notwithstanding the discontent ma-
from the agitation having first oc- nifested by the native troops, the
curred at Yellore, is obvious. The garrison was still left with only four
battalion that most opposed the in- companies of Europeans.” — Barr^
na^'Ation was, indeed, ordered to Close to John Malcolm. Foomh,
Madras, but nothing was directed Aug. 12, 1806. MS. Correspondewem
indicative cf any jealousy of the

1506.

226 THE SEFOY AEMT — ^ITS EISE AND PHOGRE-SS.

1806. tween the native soldiery and the occupants of the
Palace. So the latter went about the Fort jeering
the Sepoys, and telling them that they would soon
be made Christians to a man. The different parts
of their uniform were curiously examined, amidst
shrugs and other expressive gestures, and significant
“ Wah-wahs !” and vague hints that everything
about them in some way portended Christianity.
They looked at the Sepoy’s stock, and said, ‘‘ What
is this? It is leather! Well!” Then they would
look at his belt, and tell him that it made a cross
on his breast, and at the little implements of his
calling, the turnscrew and worm, suspended from it,
and say that they also were designed to fix the Chris-
tian’s cross upon his person. But it was the round
hat that most of all was the object of the taunts and
warnings of the people from the Palace. “ It only
needed this,” they said, “ to make you altogether a
Feringhee. Take care, or we shall soon aU be made
Christians — Bazaar-people, Ryots, every one will be
compelled to wear the hat; and then the whole
country will be ruined.” Within the Fort, and out-
side the Fort, men of all kinds were talking about the
forcible conversion to Christianity which threatened
them ; and everywhere the round hat was spoken of
as the instrument by which the Caste of the Hindoo
was to be destroyed, and the faith of the Mussulman
desecrated and demolished.

But aU this was little known to the oflicers of the
Vellore garrison, or, if known, was little heeded. So
unwilling, indeed, were they to believe that any
danger was brewing, that a Sepoy who told his
English officer that the regiments were on the eve of
revolt was put in irons as a madman. The native
officers declared that he deserved condign punish-

OUTBREAK OF MUTINY.

227

ment for blackening tbe faces of bis corps, and they IS 05 .
were readily believed. But tbe time soon came
when tbe prophecy of evil was verified, and tbe pro-
phet was exalted and rewarded. Deeply implicated as
he was said to be in the plot — a traitor first to the
English, and then to his own people — his name be-
came an ofiience and an abomination to the Army,
and the favour shown to him a source of the bitterest
resentment. “The disposition of the gentlemen of
the Company’s service,” they said, “ and the nature
of their government, make a thief happy, and an
honest man afiiicted.”*

On the 10th of July the mine suddenly exploded. Vellore,
It was remembered afterwards that on the preceding
afternoon an unusual number of people had passed
into the Fort, some mounted and some on foot,
seemingly on no especial business ; all with an inso-
lent, braggart air, laughing and rollicking, making
mimic battle among themselves, and otherwise ex-
pressing a general expectancy of something coming.

It was remembered, too, that on that evening there
had been more than the common tendency of the
times to speak abusively of the English. The Adjutant
of a Sepoy re^ment had been called, to his face,
by the vilest term of reproach contained in the lan-
guage of the country.! But it has been doubted
whether the day and hour of the outburst were those
fixed for the development of the plot. The con-

* Prom a paper in Hindostaiiee, dar. The same Mnstapha Be^, Sepoy,
transmitted to Adjutant-General Ag- was the man who gave the signal for
new from the Hyderabad Subsidiary revolt to the people at Yellore, and
Force: ^*In the affair at Vellore,” this is the man whom the Company
said the Sepoys, when the mutiny have distinguished by their favour.”
first commenced, it was on account f Unhappily it is one of the first
of Mustapha Beg ; and the gentle- words which the Englishman in
men of the Company’s Government India learns to speak, and by which
have bestowed upon him a reward of many young officers, when displeased,
two thousand pagodas from the pub- habitually call their native servants,
lie treasury, with the rank of Soubali-

Q 2

228 THE SEPOY AEMY — ITS EISE AOT) PEOGEESS.

1806. spirators, it is said, -vYere not ripe for action. Two or
three days later, the first blow was to have been
struck, but that a Jemadar, inflamed with strong
drink, could not control the passionate haste within
him, and he precipitated the collision which it was the
policy of his party to defer.* Numbers thus suddenly
roused to action were unprepared to play their parts ;
and letters which had been written to disaffected
polygars and others in Mysore had not yet been de-
spatched. It was confidently believed that in a few
days ten thousand faithful adherents of the House of
Hyder would rally round the standard of the Mussul-
man Princes. All that was required of the Sepoys
was, that they should hold Vellore for a week. At
the end of that time it was believed that the whole
country would be in the hands of the insurgents.

The European garrison of Vellore, at this time.

His Majesty’s consisted only of four companies of a Line regiment.

69tli. suddenly, in the dead of the night, on aU who

might happen to be on guard, to overpower them by
numbers, and then to murder the rest in their beds,
was apparently an easy task. Two hours after mid-
night the work commenced. The sentries were shot
down. The soldiers on main guard were killed as
they lay on their cots, and the white men in the

^ In the private correspondenbe ing the native guard fell sick, that
of the time, it is stated that, the day the Souhahdar was also indisposed,
fixed for the outbreak was the l^tli. and that Jemadar Cossim Khan, one
It appeared, however, in the evi- of the most active of the mutineers^
dence of the first Committee of Tn- was eager to go the grand rounds ;
quiry assembled at Vellore, that it and it is possible that this accident
was agreed that the first blow should lielped to precipitate the crisis. On
be struck fifteen days after the the other nand, it is to be observed
Mysore standard, prepared in the that Major Armstrong, who had been
Palace, was ready to be hoisted, and absent from Vellore, and who re-
that thirteen days had then passed, turned on the night of the 10th, was
The story of the drunken Jemadar warned by people outside the Fort
appears in Madras Secret Letter, not to enter, as something was about
Sept. 30, 1806. It happened, too, to happen,
that the Enropean officer command-

THE MiSSACEE OE VEILOUE.

229

hospital weie ruthlessly butchered. There was then 1806.
a scene of unexampled confusion. Roused from their
beds by the unaccustomed sound of firing in the Fort,
the English officers went out to learn the cause of the
commotion, and many of them were shot down by the
mutineers in the first bewilderment of surprise. The
two senior officers of the garrison were among the
first who fell. On the threshold of his house, Fan-
court, who commanded the garrison, was warned, for
dear life’s sake, not to come out, but answering with
the Englishman’s favourite formula of “ Never mind,”
he made for the Main Guard, and was shot with the
“Fall in!” on his lips. Of the survivors two or
three made their -way to the barracks, and took com-
mand of such of the Europeans as had escaped the
first murderous onslaught of the Sepoys. But it was
little that the most desperate resolution could do in
this extremity to stem the continually increasing tide
of furious hostility which threatened to overwhelm
them. It was no mere military revolt. The inmates
of the Palace were fraternising with the Sepoys. From
the apartments of the Princes went forth food to re-
fresh the weary bodies of the insurgents, and vast
promises to stimulate and sustain the energies of their
minds. One of the Princes, the third son of Tippoo,
personally encouraged the leaders of the revolt. With
his own hands he gave them the significant bhetal-nut.

With his own lips he proclaimed the rewards to be
lavished upon the restorers of the Mahomedan dynasty.

And from his apartments a confidential servant was
seen to bring the tiger-striped standard of Mysore,
which, amidst vociferous cries of “ Dheen 1 Dheen 1”
was hoisted above the walls of the Palace. But the
family of the Sultan were soon forgotten. There was
no combination to aid their escape. The Sepoys at

230 THE SEPOY ARMY — ^ITS RISE AND PROGRESS,

1808. first gave themselves up to the work of massacre. The
people from the Palace, following in their wake,
gorged themselves with the plunder of the white men,
and aided the mutineers without sharing their danger.
After a time the Sepoys betook themselves also to
plunder; and the common object was forgotten under
the excitement of personal greed. The white women
in the Fort were spared. The tender mercies of the
wicked, with a refined cruelty, preserved them for a
worse fate than death. The people from the Palace
told the Sepoys not to kiU them, as all the English
would be destroyed, and the Moormen might then
take them for wives.*

But whilst these terrible scenes were being en-
acted, and the sons of Tippoo were swelling with
the proud certainty of seeing the rule of the Sultan
again established in Mysore, retribution swift and
ilajor Coats, certain was overtaking the enterprise. An officer of
the English regiment, who happened to be on duty
outside the Fort, heard the firing, thoroughly appre-
hended the crisis, and, through the darkness of the
early morning, made his way to Arcot, to carry
thither the tidings of insurrection, and to summon
succours to the aid of the imperilled garrison. There
The lath w-as a regiment of British Dragoons at Arcot, under
Dragoons. Command of Colonel Gillespie. By seven o’clock
Coats had told his story. Fifteen minutes afterwards,
Gillespie, with a squadron of his re^ment, was on his
way to Vellore. The rest were saddling and mount-
ing; the galloper-guns were being horsed and lim-
bered; and a squadron of Native Cavalry was re-
sponding to the trumpet-call with as much alacrity

♦ The massacre included fourteen ral officers and men wounded, some
officers and ninety -nine soldiers of the latter mortally,
killed There were, moreover, seve-

SUCCOURS FROM ARGOT.

231

as the British Dragoons. The saving virtues of
promptitude and preparation were never more con-
spicuously manifested. A little vacillation, a little
blundering, a little delay, the result of nothing being
ready when wanted, and all might have been lost.
Never had the sage precept of Hyder Ali, that the
English should keep their white soldiers like hunting-
leopards in cages, and slip them suddenly and fiercely
at the enemy, been wrought into practice with more
terrible effect, than now against the followers and
supporters of his descendants.

Once under the walls of Vellore, Gillespie was
eager to make his way into the Fort, that he might
rally the remnant of the European garrison and
secure the safe admission of his men. The outer
gates were open, but the last was closed, and in pos^
session of the enemy. There was no hope of forcing
it without the aid of the guns. But these were norv
rapidly approaching. There were good officers with
the relieving force, to whom the conduct of external
operations might be safely entrusted; and Gillespie
longed to find himself w'ith the people whom he had
come to save. So, whilst preparations were being
made for the attack, he determined to ascend alone
the walls of the Fort. In default of ladders, the men
of the 69th let down a rope, and, amidst the shouts
of the delighted Europeans, he was drawn up, un-
hurt, to the crest of the ramparts, and took command
of the survivors of the unhappy force. Quickly
forming at the word of command, they came down
eagerly to the charge, and, cheered by the welcome
sound of the guns, which were now clamouring for
admission, and not to be denied, tbey kept the muti-
neers at a distance till the gates were forced; and
then the cavalry streamed in, and victory was easy.

1 « 06 .

232 THE SEPOY AEMT — ITS MSB AND

laoff. The retribution was terrible, and just. Hundreds fell
beneath the sabres of the Dragoons and of the native
horsemen, who emulated the ardour of their European
comrades. Hundreds escaped over the walls of the
Fort, or threw down their arms and cried for mercy.
But the excited troopers, who had seen Tippoo’s
tiger-standard floating over the citadel of Vellore,
could not, after that hot morning-ride, believe that
they had done their work until they had destroyed
the “ cubs.” They were eager to be led into the
Palace, and there to inflict condign punishment on
those whom they believed to be the real instigators
of the butchery of there countrymen. For a moment
there was a doubt in Gillespie’s mind ; but an appeal
from Colonel Marriott, in whose charge was the
Mysore family, removed it; and he put forth a re-
straining hand. He would not soil his victory with
any cruel reprisals. The members of Tippoo’s family
were now at his mercy, and the mercy which he
showed them was that which the Christian soldier
delights to rain down upon the fallen and the help-
less.*

^ Eor all the facts given in the that Major Coats, who was bearer of
text, I have the authority of a mass the news, was outside the Eort at the
of official, semi-official, and private time of the outbreak. It is very
contemporary correspondence, which generally stated, too, that when
I have very carefully collated. In Gillespie wished to enter the Eort in
doing so, 1 have been compelled to advance of his men, as there were no
reject some personal incidents which ladders and no ropes, the survivors
have hitherto generally formed part of the 69tli fastened their belts to-
of the narrative of the Massacre gether, and thus drew him up the
of Vellore,” but which, however walls. But I have before me two
serviceable they may be for purposes letters, signed “ R. Gillespie,” which
of effective historical writing, are, I state that he was drawn up by a
am sorry to say, at best apocryphal, rope. Among the fictitious inci-
It has been said that the officer who dents of the mutiny may be men-
carried the tidings to Arcot escaped tioned the whole of the stories which
through a sally-port, and swam .the tell of the foul murder of English
ditch of the Eort so famous for the women, and the braining of Ettle
number and size of its alligators, children before their mothers’ eyes.
Sober official correspondence states

PROGRESS OF DISAFFECTION.

233

But tlie storm liad not expended itself in this fierce 1806.
convulsion. Taught by so stern a lesson, the Go-
vernment resolved that “ all orders which might be
liable to the objection of affecting the usages of the
troops,” should be abandoned. But the obnoxious
hats might have been burnt before the eyes of the
troops, and the caste-marks and ear-rings restored on
parade, in the presence of the Governor, the Com-
mander-in-Chief, and all the magnates of the land;
and stOl a return to quietude and contentment might
have been far distant. Individual causes of anger
and bitterness might be removed, but still there would
remain, together with the mistrust they had engen-
dered, aU the vague anxieties on the one side, and the
indefinite expectations on the other, which designing
men had excited in the minds of the soldiery.* Re-
bellion had been crushed for a time at its Head-
Quarters. The British flag floated again over Vel-
lore ; but there were other strong posts, which it had
been intended to seize, and efforts might yet be made
to establish revolt in other parts of the Southern
Peninsula.

Nor was it only in Mysore and the Carnatic that Hyderabad,
the spirit of disaffection was rife. In the Deccan,
also, it was manifesting itself in a manner which, for
a while, created serious alarm. At Hyderabad, the
capital of the Nizam’s dominions, there was a high

* “ The subversion of the British unaccountable impression has been
Empire in India by foreign invasion made upon the Sepoys, which has
and domestic revolt, seems to have been fomented by prophecies and
been the common theme of discourse predictions inducing a belief that
all over the country, and opinions wonderful changes are about to take
have generally prevailed that such a place, and that the Europeans are to
revolution was neither an enterprise be expelled from -^General

of great difficulty, nor that the ac- Hay Macdowalh Nundydroog, OcU
complishment of it was far distant. 31. MS. Correspondence.

A most extraordinary and

2S4 THE SEPOr AEMY— ITS EISE MD PEOGBESS,

1806. tide of excitement. It was apprehended that the
native troops of the Subsidiary Force, encouraged
and aided by some of the chief people of this Maho-
medan State, if not by the Nizam himself, would
break out into revolt. They were wrought upon by
nearly the same influences as had destroyed the
loyalty of the troops in Mysore, with some peculiar
aggravations of their own. A new commanding
Coloiiel Mauf officer had recently been placed over them — a smart
tresor. disciplinarian of the most approved European pattern.

They had been worried and alarmed before his ar-
rival. Montresor’s appearance soon made matters
worse. Knowing little or nothing of the habits and
feelings of the people of the country, he enforced
the new orders with more than common strictness,
and supplemented them with some obnoxious regula*
tions of his own. An order had been issued just
before his arrival forbidding the Sepoy to leave his
Guard and to divest hunself of his uniform during
his period of duty ; and now the new English com-
mandant prohibited the beating of taum-taums in the
bazaars. It was not seen that these prohibitions were,
in effect, orders that the Hindoo Sepoy should take no
sustenance on duty, and that there should be no mar-
riage and no funeral processions. When the disco-
very was made, the new local regulations were re-
scinded ; but it was not possible to rescind the mis-
chief that was done. There was a profound convic-
tion among the Sepoys that it was the intention of
the English to destroy their caste, to break down
their religion, and forcibly to convert them to Chris-
tianity. And all through the long straggling lines of
Hyderabad there was a continual buzz of alann, and
the Sepoys were asking each other if they had heard

CONDUCT OP THE NIZAM.

235

Iiow the English General, Wemyss Sahib, at Colombo, 1806 .
had matched his native soldiers to Church.*

That the feeling of mingled fear and resentment,
which had taken possession of the minds of the sol-
diery, was much fomented by emissaries from the
city of Hyderabad, is not to be doubted. Many lead-
ing men, discontented and desperate, at all times
prone to intrigue and ripe for rebellion, looked
eagerly for a crisis out of which might have come
some profit to themselves. It is probable that they
were in communication with dependents of the House
of Tippoo. It is certain that they fostered the re-
sentments and stimulated the ambition of the native
officers, and that a programme of action had been
agreed upon, of which murder and massacre were the
prelude.f But happily the Nizam and his minister,

Meer AUum — the one in word, the other in spirit —

Avere true to the English alliance. Wisely, in that
conjuncture, did Sydenham confide all his troubles
to them. It is a sad necessity to be compelled to
communicate to a native Prince the belief of the
English Government that their troops are not to be
trusted. But concealment in such a case is impos-
sible, and any attempt to disguise the truth helps

* “It is astonishing how strong that “the native troops had been
and how general the impression was invited to desert their colours, to
of a systematic design to enforce the break out in open mutiny, and to
conversion of the Sepoys to Chris- murder their omcers. It was in*
tianity. The men here heard, and tended that a commotion should have
talked of the late arrival of some taken place in the city at the moment
clergymen from England, and of the of the insurrection in cantonments j
story of General Wemyss marching that Meer Allum, and all those in
the Sepoys to church at Colombo,” — the interests of the English, were to
Cajitain Thomas Sydenham {Resident be destroyed ; that the Soubalidar
at Hyderabatd) to Mr, Bdmonstone, (Nizam) was to he confined, and
July 27, 1806. MS. Correspondence, i’eridoom Jab either made Dewan or

i* Captain Sydenham wrote that, placed on the musnud, as ciroum-
from the best information he could stances might suggest.”— Cor*
obtain at Hyderabad, it appeared respondence.

236 THE SEPOY AKMY— ns EISE AND PEOGEESS,

1806 . others to exaggerate and to distort it. The Nizam
knew all that had been going on, perhaps before the
British Resident had even a suspicion of it. Eager
for his support, and AviUing to raise the standard of
revolt in his name, the conspirators had conveyed to
him a written paper signifying their wishes. He did
not answer it. He did not giA’^e it to the Resident.
He simply waited and did nothing. It was not in
the nature of the man to. do more. He knew the
power of the English ; but he secretly hated them,
and naturally shrank from opposing or betraying a
cause which appealed to him in the name of his reli-
gion. Perhaps it is hardly fair to expect from a
native Prince, under such conflicting circumstances,
more than this negative support.

The feeling among the native troops was so strong,
the danger appeared to be so imminent, that Mon-
tresor was besought by some old Sepoy officers not
to enforce the obnoxious regulations. But he replied
that he had been selected for that especial command
as a fitting agent for their enforcement, and how could
he turn his back upon his duty ? But when tidings
of the massacre at Vellore reached Hyderabad, he
saw at once that concession must be made to the pre-
judices of the Sepoy, and the orders were revoked in
July 22 , 1806 . anticipation of instructions from the Madras Govern-
ment. Still the troops were not satisfied. Having
gained one victory they determined to attempt an-
other. So they feR back upon the old grievance of
the leather stock, and the men of some of the batta-
lions, encouraged by their native officers, were seen
disencumbering themselves of this article of their
uniform on parade, and casting it contemptuously on
the ground. A display of vigour at the right time
crushed the mutiny ere it was matured. On the

ALAEM AT NUNDYDROOG.

237

14th of August, the troops at Hyderabad were or- 1806.

■ dered under arms. The English regiment was H.M.’s 33rd
posted near the park of artillery, and the cavalry
were drawn up enpotence on both flanks. Then four
Soubahdars of Native Infantry, who were believed to
be the ringleaders in the mutinous movement, were
called to the front and marched off under a guard of
thirty Europeans and a company of Sepoys. Under
this escort they were sent to Masulipatam. This
movement had the best possible effect both in the
cantonment and the city. Mutiny was awe-struck ;
sedition was paralysed; conciliatory explanations
and addresses, which had before failed, were now
crowned with success, and early in the following
month Sydenham wrote from Hyderabad that every-
thing was “ perfectly tranquil, both in the city and
the cantonments.” “The Sepoys,” it added, “ap-
pear cheerful and contented, and the Government
goes on with considerable vigour and regularity.”

But ere long the anxieties of the Government
again turned towards the old quarter. It was clear
that, in the former domains of the Sultan, the fire,
though suppressed for a time, had not been extin-
guished. At Nundydroog, in the heart of the Nundydroog
Mysore territory, there had been symptoms of un-
easiness from the commencement of the year. The
native troops were few; but the fortress, built upon
a high scarped rock, was one of uncommon strength,
and, well defended, might have defied attack. In
itself, therefore, a coveted possession for the rebel
force, it was rendered doubly important by its
position. For it was within a night’s march of
the great station of Bangalore, and the mutineers
from that post would have flocked to it as a
raUying-point and a stronghold, admirably suited

238 THE SEPOY AEMY— ITS EISE AND PROGRESS.

1806. for the Head- Quarters of Rehellion.” The influences,
therefore, of which I have spoken — ^the fakeers, the
conjurors, the puppet-showmen, the propagators of
strange prophecies — ^were more than commonly opera-
tive in that direction, and had success attended the
first outbreak at Vellore, the Nundydroog garrison
would then have turned upon their oflicers, hoisted
the rebel flag on the walls of the Fort, and displayed
signals which might have been seen at Bangalore.
But a season of suspended activity naturally followed
this failure ; and it was not until the month of Oc-
tober that they ventured to resolve on any open
demonstration. Then the Mahomedan and Hindoo
Sepoys feasted together, bound themselves by solemn
engagements to act as brethren in a common cause,
and swore that they would rise against and massacre
their English ofiScers.

October 18 , The day and the hour of the butchery were fixed.

The native soldiery had quietly sent their families out
of the Fort, and otherwise prepared for the struggle.f
Two hours before midnight on the 18th of October
the Sepoys were to have rushed upon their English
officers, and not left a white man hving in the place.

Capt; Baynes. But about eight o’clock on that evening an English
officer galloped up to the house of the Commandant
Cuppage, and told him that no time was to be lost ;
that the Sepoys were on the point of rising, and that

* Hark Wilk.s wrote to Barry
Close, with reference to this move-
ment at Nundydroog: “I do not
know what to make of all this ; men
wlio had any great combination in
view could scarcely have any design
to act on so small a scale.” But
Barry Close, taking a more compre-
hensive view, replied: ^‘The great
object of the Insurgents at Tellore
seems to have been to secure to

themselves a strong post on which
to £^semble in force. Cnppage’s
garrison, though small, may have
had it in view to seize on Nundy-
droog. Possessed of this strong post,
the conspirators would have probably
assembled upon it in force, and pro-
ceeded to act against ns openly.” —
MS, Correspondence,
f Colonel Cuppage to Barry Close.
— MS. Correspondence.

ALARM AT PALLAMCOTTAn.

239

means of safety must at once be sought. Scarce bad 1806 .
the story been told, when an old and distinguished
native officer came breathless with the same intelli-
gence. There was no room for doubt ; no time for
delay. An express, calling for reinforcements, was
despatched to Bangalore; and the officers, selecting
one of their houses in the Pagoda-square, which
seemed best adapted to purposes of defence, took post
together and waited the issue. The night passed
without an attack; and on the morrow afternoon
safety came in the shape of a squadron of Dragoons
from Bangalore. Colonel Davis had received the
tidings soon after daybreak, and by three o’clock his
troopers were clattering into Nundydroog.

November came, and with it came new troubles, fallamcott^
Far down the coast, not many leagues removed from
the southernmost part of the Peninsula, lies the station
of PaUamcottah. There Major Welsh, with six Euro-
pean officers under him, commanded a Sepoy battalion,
in which many relatives of the mutineers cut up at
VeUore were brooding over their loss of kindred.

Towards the end of the third week of the month, it
was believed that the Mahomedan Sepoys were about
to rise and to massacre all the Europeans in the place.

The story ran that, rejecting with contempt the idea
of banding themselves with the Hindoos, they had
met at a mosque and concerted their murderous plans.

Some buildings were to be fired in the cantonment to
draw the English officers from their homes. In the
confusion, the whole were to be slain, the Fort was to
be seized, and the rebel flag hoisted on the ramparts.

Scenting the plot, a Malabar-man went to the mosque
in disguise, and carried tidings of it to the English
Commandant. The danger appeared to be imminent^
and Welsh at once took his measures to avert it

240

THE SEPOT ARMY — ^ITS RISE AND PROGRESS.

Whatever may have been the judgment and discretion
of the man, his courage and determination were
conspicuous; and his comrades were of the same
temper. Assuming the bold, intrepid front, which
has so often been known to overawe multitudes, this
little handful of undaunted Englishmen seized and
confined thirteen native officers, and turned five
hundred Mussulman Sepoys out of the Fort. That
they were able to accomphsh this, even with the sup-
port of the Hindoos, was declared to be a proof that
no desperate measures had really been designed. But
the premature explosion of a plot of this kind always
creates a panic. In a state of fear and surprise, men
are not capable of reasoning. There is a vague im-
pression that boldness presages power ; that there is
something behind the imposing front. A single man
has ere now routed a whole garrison. I am not sure,
therefore, that there was no danger, because it was so
easily trodden out.

Two days afterwards Colonel Hyce, who com-
manded the district of Tinnivelly, threw himself
into PaUamcottah ; assembled the Hindoo troops ;
told them that he had come there to maintain the
authority of the Company, or to die in the defence of -
the colours which he had sworn to protect. He then
called upon those who were of the same mind to ap-
proach the British flag for the same purpose, but if
not, to depart in peace. They went up and took the
oath to a man, presented arms to the colours, gave
three unbidden cheers in earnest of their unshaken
loyalty, and fell in as on a muster-parade.

On the first appearance of danger, Welsh had
despatched a letter by a country-boat to Ceylon, call-
ing for European troops, and the call was responded
to with an alacrity beyond .all praise. - But so eflec-

FATE OF SIAJOE WELSH.

241

tual -were the measures which had been already-
adopted, or so little of real danger had there been,
that when the succour which had been sent for
arrived from Trichinopoly, the alarm had passed,
and the work was done.

Told as I have told this story — a simple recital of
facts, as written down in contemporary correspondence
— ^it would appear to afford an instructive example of
the virtue of promptitude and vigour. But this is not
the only lesson to be learnt from it. It is more in-
structive still to note that Major "Welsh was severely
condemned as an alarmist, the tendency of whose
precipitate action was to destroy confidence and to
create irritation. Another officer,* who, apprehend-
ing danger, had disarmed his regiment as a precau-
tion, was denounced -with slill greater vehemence.f
Apprehensions of this kind were described as “dis-
graceful and groundless panics and political officers
chuckled to think that it was proposed at Madras to
remove from their commands and to bring to Courts-
Martial the oflficers who had considered it their duty
not to wait to be attacked. J With these lessons before

^ Lieutenant-Colonel Grant.

*j* I find this fact recorded in tlie
correspondence of the day with three
notes of exclamation: “With regard
to Colonel Grant,” wrote Major
Wilks from Mysore, “ it appears
that he disarmed his troops simply
as a measure of precaution ! I ! Wlie-
ther we are in danger from our own
misconduct, or from worse causes,
the danger is great, . • . I conclude
tliat Chalmers will be sent to super-
sede Grant, and Vesey to Pallamcot-
tah, and my best hope is that there
will be found sufficient grounds for
turning Welsh and Grant out of the
service, but this will not restore tlie
confidence of the Sepoys.” — M.S.
Correspondence. Grant’s conduct was
at once repudiated in a general order.

and he and Welsh ordered for Court-
Martial. Both were honourably ac-
quitted.

J Many years after the occurrence
of these events, Major, then Colonel
Welsh, published two volumes of
Military Heminisceuces* Turning to
these for some account of the affair
at Pallamcottah, I was disappointed
to find only the following scanty
notice of it: “Towards the end of
the year an event took place, which,
although injurious to my own pros-
pects and fortune, under the signal
blessing of Providence terminated
fortunately. Time has now spread
his oblivious wings over the whole
occurrence, and I will not attempt
to remove the veil.”

1806 .

2H: THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS RISE AND PROGRESS.

1806.

Wallajalia-

bad.

US, we cannot wonder that men, in such conjunctures,
should hesitate to strike the blow which any one may
declare uncalled-for, and the wisdom of which no one
can prove — should pause to consider whether they are
more likely to develop the evil by an assertion of
strength, or to encourage its growth by the feebleness
of inaction.*

But it was plain that, w'hatsoever might be the wisest
course in such a conjuncture, the Government of Lord
William Bentinck was all in favour of the milder and
more sedative mode of treatment. In remarkable
contrast to the manner in which the symptoms of
coming mutiny were grappled with at Pallamcottah
Stands the story of Wallajahabad. Some of the earliest
signs of disaffection, on the score of the turban, had
manifested themselves at that place ; and Gillespie,
with his dragoons, had been despatched thither at
the end of July, not without a murmur of discontent
at the thought of his “poor hard-worked fellows”
being sent to counteract what appeared to him a
doubtful danger. It was believed, however, that
the uneasiness had passed a'\’^ay, and for some
months there had been apparent tranq[uillitJ^ But
in November the alarm began to revive; and a

^ TliQ difficulties of tlie English
officer at that time were thus de-
scribed by a contemporary writer, in
a passage which I have chanced upon
since the above was written ; “ The
massacre at Yellore had naturally
<?reated a great degree of mistrust
between the European officers and
the Sepoys throughout the Army ;
and the indecision of measures at
Head-Quarters seemed further to
strengthen this mistrust. If an
officer took no precautionary mea-
sures on receiving, information of an
intended plot, he was liable to the

severest censure, as well as respon-
sible for bis own and the lives of his
European officers. On the contrary,
if he took precautionary measures
he was accused of creating unneces-
sary distrust ; and equally censured
for being premature and not allow-
ing the mutiny to on till satis-
factorily proved, when it would have
been too late to prevent.” — Stric-
tures on the present Government of
India, 8fc, In a Letter from an Officer
resident on the spot TricUnopoh.
1807 i London, im.

GOTEKNMENT MEASUEES.

243

detailed statement of various indications of a coming 1806.;
outbreak, drawn up by Major Hazlewood, was sent to
tbe authorities. On the morning of the 2nd of De-
cember the members of the Madras Government met
in Council. Hazlewood’s statement was laid before
them and gravely discussed; but with no definite
result. The Council broke up without a decision, but
only to meet again, refreshed by the sea-breeze and
the evening ride. Then it was resolved that a discreet
officer, in the confidence of Government, should be
sent to Wallajahabad to inquire into and report on
the state of affairs ; and on the same evening Colonel
Munro, the Quartermaster-General, received his in-
structions, and prepared to depart. The event ap-
peared to justify this cautious line of action; but
one shudders to think what might have happened at
Wallajahabad whilst Government were deliberating
over written statements of danger, and drafting in-
structions for a Staff-officer in the Council-Chamber
of Madras.

Sis months had now passed dnce the Madras Go- Deo.. 1806
vernment had been made acquainted with the state
of feeling in the Native Army, and understood that a
vague apprehension of the destruction of caste and of
“forcible conversion to Christianity” had been one
of the chief causes of the prevailing disquietude.

The obnoxious regulations had been abandoned, but
this was a concession obviously extorted from fear ;
and nothing had yet been done to reassure the
minds of the soldiery by a kindly paternal address
to them from the fountain-head of the local Govern-
ment. But at last Bentinck and his coUeaguee
awoke to a sense of the plain and palpable duty
which lay before them; and at this Council of the
2nd of December a Proclamation was agreed upon,

K 2

244 THBSEPOTAEMT — ITS MSE AND-PBOGRESS.

1806 . and on tlie following day issued, which, translated
into the Hindostanee, the Tamul, and Telegoo dia-
lects, was sent to every native battalion in the Army,
with orders to commanding ofScers to make its con-
tents known to every native officer and Sepoy under
their command. After adverting to the extraordinary
a^tation that had for some time prevailed in the
Coast Army, and the reports spread for malicious
purposes, by persons of evil intention, that it was the
design of the British Government to convert the
troops by forcible means to Christianity, the Procla-
mation proceeded to declare that the constant kind-
ness and liberality at all times shown to the Sepoy
should convince him of the happiness of his situation,
“ greater than what the troops of any other part of
the world enjoy,” and induce him to return to the
good conduct for which he had been distinguished in
the days of Lawrence and Coote, and “ other re-
nowned heroes.” If they would not, they would
learn that the British Government “ is not less pre-
pared to punish the guilty than to protect and dis-
tinguish those who are deserving of its favour.” But
this was something more than the truth. The British
Government did not show itself, in this conjuncture,
to be “prepared to punish the guilty” in a manner
proportionate to the measure of their offences. Lord
William Bentinck and his Councillors were all for
clemency. Sir John Cradock counselled the adoption
of more vigorous punitory measures, and the Supreme
Government were disposed to support the military
chief. Something of a compromise then ensued, the
result of which was a very moderate instalment of the
retribution which was justly due. A few only of the
most guilty of the murderers were executed; whilst
others, clearly convicted of taking part in the sangui-

CAUSES or THE MUTINY.

245

nary revolt, were merely dismissed the service. And 1806 .
if it had not been for the overruling authority of the
Government at Calcutta — that is, of Sir George
Barlow, with Mr. Edmonstone at his elbow* — the
numbers of the assassin-battalions would not have
been erased from the Army List. But penal measures
did not end here. The higher tribunals of the Home
Government condemned the chief authorities of
Madras, and, justly or unjustly, the Governor, the
Commander-in-Chief, and the Adjutant-General, were
summarily removed from office.

The mutiny died out with the old year ; the active 1807 .
danger was passed; but it left behind it a
of bitter controversy which did not readily subside. Revolt.
What was the cause of the revolt? Whose fault was
it? Was it a mere military mutiny, the growth of
internal irritation, or was it a political movement
fomented by agitators from without? The contro-
versialists on both sides were partly wrong and partly
right — ^wrong in their denials, right in their assertions.

It is difficult in such a case to put together in proper
sequence all the links of a great chain of events ter-
minating even in an incident of yesterday, so little do
we know of what is stirring in the occult heart of
native society. After a lapse of half a century it is
impossible. There is often in the Simultaneous, the
Coincidental, an apparent uniformity of tendency,
which simulates design, but which, so far as human
agency is concerned, is wholly fortuitous. We see

^ Manj years afterwards, Sir formed at Vellore.” “ His wise and
George Barlow gracefully acknow- steady counsel,” added Barlow, af"
lodged the valuable assistance which, forded me important aid and support
ill this conjuncture, Mr. Edmonstone in carrying into effect the measures
had rendered to him, saying that his necessary for counteracting the im-

unshaken firmness and resolution pressions made by that alarming
in times of internal difficulty and event, which threatened the most
danger” were “ signally displayed serious consequences to the security
on the discovery ot‘ the conspiracy of our power.” — MS. Documents.

246 THE SEPOX ABMX — ^ITS RISE MD PROGRESS.

1807. tills in tHe commonest concerns of Hfe. We see it
in events aflrectmg mightily the destinies of empires.
Under a pressure of concurrent annoyances and
vexations, men often cry out that there is a con-
spiracy against them, and the historical inquirer
often sees a conspiracy when in reality there is only
a coincidence. A great disaster, like the massacre at
Vellore, acts like iodine upon hidden writings in rice-
water. Suddenly is proclaimed to us in all its signifi-
cance what has long heen Avritten down on the page
of the Past, but which, for lyant of the revealing agent,
has hitherto lain ille^hly before us. Doubtless,
many hidden things were disclosed to us at this time ;
blit whether they were peculiar to the crisis or of a
normal character, at any period discernible, had we
taken proper steps to develop them, was matter of
grave dispute. The political officers, headed by Mark
Wilks, the historian of Southern India, who was then
representing British interests in Mysore, laughed to
scorn the discoveries of the military officers, and
said that the things which they spoke of as so por-
tentous were in reality only phenomena of every-day
appearance, familiar to men acquainted with the feel-
ings and habits of the people. He derided aU that
had been said about seditious conversations in the
Bazaars and the Lines, the wild prophecies and mys-
terious hints of wandering Fakeers, and the sugges-
tive devices of the puppet-shows.* There was nothing
in all this, he contended, of an exceptional character,
to be regarded as the harbingers of mutiny and mas-
sacre. And his arguments culminated in the chuckling
assertion that the military authorities had discovered

^ There were two suTijects wMcli of tlie Frencli over tlie English, the
the Kooipootke - Wallahs extremely one intended to excite hatred, the
delighted to illustrate — the degrada- other contempt, in the minds of the
tion of the Mogul, and the victories spectators.

MIUTARY AB.GU4IENTS.

247

a cabalistic document of a most treasonable character, 1807.
■which appeared to their excited imaginations to be a
plan for partitioning the territory to be ■wrested from
the English, but ■which, in reality, was nothing more
portentous than the scribblement of the Dervlsh-Bazee,
or “ royal game of goose.”

With equal confidence on the other hand, the mili-
tary authorities protested that the new regulations
had nothing to do with the mutiny — that it was alto-
gether a pohtical movement. The new cap, they
said, had been accepted and worn by the Sepoys.

Three representative men, types of the principal na-
tionalities composing the Coast Army, had sig’nified
their satisfaction ■with the new head-dress, and one or
two regiments en masse had been paraded in it with-
out a murmur. The fact, they alleged, was that the
movement had emanated solely from the deposed
family of Tippoo Sultan ; that its object was to re-
store, in the first instance, the Mahomedan dynasty
in Southern India, and eventually to recover the
imperial throne for the Mogul. If proper precautions
had been taken by Government — if Tippoo’s family,
eager for a taste of blood, had not been left to disport
themselves at will in Vellore — ^if they had not been
gorged with money, and attended by countless Mus-
sulman followers eager to recover the posts and the pri-
vileges which they had lost, there would, said the mili-
tary leaders, have been no massacre and no mutiny
and, some said, not even a murmur of discontent
But the military critic was as ■wrong as the political,
and for the same reason. Each was blinded by pro-
fessional interests and professional prejudices. Each
argued in self-defence. The truth, as it commonly
does in such cases, lay naidway between the two
extremes. But for the intrigues of Tippoo’s family

248 THE SEPOY AEMY — ^ITS BISE AND PEOGEESS.

1807. there would have been no outbreak at that time, and
hut for the new military regulations they might have
intrigued in vain. It so happened that the political
and military influences were adverse to us at the
same mornent, and that from the conjuncture arose
the event known in history as the Massacre of
Vellore, but which was in reality a much more
extensive military combination, prevented only by
repeated local failures from swelling into the dimen-
sions of a general revolt of the Coast Army.

hTor is it to be forgotten that there was a third
party, which attributed the calamity less to political
and to military causes than to the general uneasiness,
which had taken possession of the native mind in con-
sequence of the supposed activity of Christian mis-
sionaries and of certain “ missionary chaplains.” The
dread of a general destruction of Caste and forcible
conversion to Christianity was not confined to the
Sepoys. The most preposterous stories were current
in the Bazaars. Among other wild fables, which took
firm hold of the popular mind, was one to the effect
that the Company’s ofiicers had collected all the
newly-manufactured salt, had divided it into two
great heaps, and over one had sprinkled the blood of
hogs, and over the other the blood of cows; that
they had then sent it to be sold throughout the
country for the pollution and the desecration of
Mahomedans and Hindoos, that all might be brought
to one caste and to one religion like the English.
When this absurd story was circulated, some ceased
altogether to eat salt, and some purchased, at high
price, and carefully stored away, supplies of the neces-
sary article, guaranteed to have been in the Bazaars,
before the atrocious act of the Feringhees had been
committed. Another stoiy was that the Collector of

LYING KGMOUBS.

249

Trincomalee had, under the orders of Government, 1S07.
laid the foundation of a Christian Church in his dis-
trict close to the great Pagoda of the Hindoos ; that
he had collected all the stone-cutters and builders in
the neighbourhood ; that he was taxing every house-
hold for the payment of the cost of the building;
that he had forbidden all ingress to the Pagoda, and
all worshipping of idols ; and that to all complaints
on the subject he had replied that there was nothing
extraordinary in what he was doing, as Government
had ordered a similar building to be erected in every
town and every village in the country. In India,
stories of this kind are readily believed. The grosser
the lie the more eagerly it is devoured.* They are
circulated by designing persons with a certainty that
they will not be lost. That the excitement of religious
alarm was the principal means by which the enemies
of the British Government hoped to accomplish their
objects is certain ; but if there had not been a foregone
determination to excite this alarm, nothing in the
actual progress of Christianity at that time would
have done it. A comparison, indeed, between the re-
ligious status of the English in India and the wild
stories of forcible conversion, which were then circu-

* Not immediately illustrating this sible despatch. It happened that
point of inquiry, but even more pre- the dead body of a native without a
posterous in itself than the rumours head was found near the B-esidency,
cited in the text, was a story which and that a drunken European artil-
was circulated at Hyderabad. It leiyman, about the same time, at-
was stated that an oracle in a neigh- tacked a native sentry at his post,
bouring Pagoda had declared that These facts gave new wings to the
there was considerable treasure at report, and such was the alarm that
the bottom of a well in the European the natives would not leave ^ their
barracks, which was destined not to homes or work after dark, and it was
be discovered until a certain number reported both to the Nizam and his
of human heads iiad been offered up minister that a hundred bodies with-
to the tutelar deity of the place ; out heads were lying on the banks of
and that accordingly the European the Moose River . — Captain Syden^
soldiers were sacrificing the neces- ham to the Government of India,

'sary number of victims with all pos- Becords,

250

THE SEPOY AEMY — ITS EISE AND PEOGEESS.

xsor.

Views of the
Home Go-
vernment.

lated, seemed openly to give the lie to the malignant
inventions of the enemy. There were no indications
on the part of Government of any especial concern for
the interests of Christianity, and among the officers of
the Army there were so few external signs of religion
that the Sepoys scarcely knew whether they owned
any faith at all.* But in a state of panic men do not
pause to reason ; and if at any time the doubt had
been suggested, it would have been astutely answered
that the English gentlemen cared only to destroy the
religions of the country, and to make the people aU of
one or of no caste, in order that they might make
their soldiers and servants do everything they wished.

‘ The authoritative judgment of a Special Commis-
sion appointed to investigate the causes of the out-
break confirmed the views of the more moderate sec-
tion of the community, which recognised, not one,
but many disturbing agencies ; and the Home Go-
vernment accepted the interpretation in a candid and
Impartial spirit. That “the late innovations as to
the dress and appearance of the Sepoys were the
leading cause of the mutiny, and the other was the
residence of the family of the late Tippoo Sultan at
Vellore,” was, doubtless, true as far as it went. But
the merchant-rulers of Leadenhall-street were dis-
posed to sound the lower depths of the difficulty.
Those were not days when the numerous urgent
claims of the Present imperatively forbad the elaborate
investigation of the Past. So the Directors began
seriously to consider what had been the more remote
predisposing causes of the almost general disaffection

* Sir John Cradock said, after the inelanchol;jj truth that so nnfre(juent
occurrence of these events, that are the religious observances of offi-
“ from the total absence of religious cers doing duty with battalions, that
establishments in the interior of the the Sepoys have not, until very
country, from the habits of life pre- lately, discovered the nature of the
valent among military men, it is a religion professed by the English/^

VIEWS or THE CO'UEt OF DIBECTOES.

251

of the Coast Army. And the “ Chairs,” in a mas-
terly letter to Mr. Dundas, freighted with the solid
intelligence of Charles Grant, declared their convic-
tion that the general decline of the fidelity of the
Army and of the attachment of the People to British
rule, was to be traced to the fact that a new class of
men, with little knowledge of India, little interest in
its inhabitants, and little toleration for their pre-
judices, had begun to monopolise the chief seats in the
Government and the chief posts in the Army; that
the annexations of Lord Wellesley had beggared the
old Mahomedan families, and had shaken the belief
of the people in British moderation and good faith ;
and that the whole tendency of the existing system
was to promote the intrusion of a rampant Eng-
lishism, and thus to widen the gulf between the
Rulers and the Ruled.*

* The Chairman and Deputy- the President of the Board of Con
Chairman of the East India Com- trol (Mr. Dundas).— 3% 18, 180?,
pany (Mr. Parry and Mr. Grant) to MS. Record*.

1807.

252

THE SEPOY lEMY — ^TTS DECLINE.

i80M809.

Mutiny of
Madras
Officers,
1809.

CHAPTER II.

aUBSlDEUCE OP ALARM— TEE SOEEIER IN ENGItAND AND IN INDIA— TEE
SEPOY AND HIS OPPICEB— HETERIORATIEG INELEENCES— THE DRAINAGE
OP THE STAFF— PROGRESS OP CENTRALISATION — THE REORGANISATION
OP 1824i— THE BARRACHPORE MUTINY— THE HALP-BATTA ORDER— ABO-
LITION OP CORPORAL PUNISHMENT.

It was not strange that for some time after the oc-
currence of these eyents in the Coast Army, the Eng-
lish in Southern India should have been possessed hy
a common sense of anger, and that this feeling should
have spread to some other parts of the country. For
a while the white man saw a conspirator beneath the
folds of every turban, and a conspiracy in every
group of people talkmg by the wayside. In every
laugh there was an insult, and in every shrug there
was a menace. English officers pillowed their heads on
loaded fire-arms, and fondled the hilts of their swords
as they slept. But gradually they lived down the sen-
sitiveness that so distressed them. Other thoughts and
feelings took possession of the bungalow ; other sub-
jects were dominant in the mess-room. And ere long
a new grievance came to supersede an old danger;
and the officers of the Madras Army forgot the rebel-
lion of the Sepoys as they incubated a rebellion of
tbeir own. How the mutiny of the officers grew out
of the mutiny of the men of the Coast Army, it
would not be difficult to show; hut the chapter of

BEHEWAL OP CONFIDENCE.

25.3

Indian histoiy which includes the former need not he 1807-1809.
re-written here. The objects for which the officers
contended were altogether remote from the interests
and sympathies of the Sepoys ; and although the
latter, in ignorance, might at first have followed their
commanders, it is not probable that they would have
continued to cast in their lot with the mutineers, after
the true character of the movement had been ex-
plained to them, and an appeal made to their fidelity
by the State. But they were not unobservant spec-
tators of that unseemly strife; and the impression
made upon the Sepoy’s mind by this spectacle of
disunion must have been of a most injurious kind.

There is nothing so essential to the permanence of
that Opinion, on which we so much rely, as a prevail-
ing sense that the English in India are not Many but
One.

Nor was it strange that, after these unfortunate
events, the fame of which went abroad throughout
the whole country, there should have been for a little
space less eagerness than before to enlist into the ser-
vice of the Company. But the reluctance passed
away under the soothing influence of time. In the
prompt and regular issue of pay, and in the pensions,'
which had all the security of funded property, there
were attractions, unknown to Asiatic armies, not
easily to be resisted. And there were other privi-
leges, equally dear to the people of the country, which
lured them by thousands into the ranks of the Com-
pany’s Army. As soon as his name was on the
muster-roll, the Sepoy, and through him all the
members of his family, passed under the special pro-
tection of the State.

It is difficult to conceive two conditions of life The Englieb
more diasiTnilar in their social aspects than soldiering

1807-1809!

Tli(' Indian
Sol iier.

254 the;sepot aemy— its decline.

in India and soldiering in England.' In England, few
men enlist into the Army as an honourable profes-
sion, or seek it as an advantageous source of subsist-
ence. Few men enter it with any high hopes or any
pleasurable emotions. The recruit has commonly
broken down as a civilian. Of ruined fortune and
bankrupt reputation, he is tempted, cheated, snared
info the Army. Lying placards on the walls, lying
words in the pot-house, the gaudy ribbons of Ser-
geant Kite, the drum and the fife and the strong
drink, captivate and enthral him when he is not
master of himself. He has quarrelled with his sweet-
heart or robbed his employer. He has exhausted
the patience of his own people, and the outer world
has turned its back upon him. And so he goes for a
soldier. As soon as he has taken the shilling, he has
gone right out of the family circle and out of the
circle of civil life. He is a thousandth part of a
regiment of the Line. Perhaps he has changed his
name and stripped himself of his personal identity.
Anyhow, he is as one dead. Little more is heard
of him; and unless it be some doting old mother,
who best loves the blackest sheep of the flock, nobody
much wishes to hear. It is often, indeed, no greater
source of pride to an English family to know that
one of its members is serving the Queen, in the ranks
of her Army, than to know that one is provided for,
as a convict, at the national expense.

But the native soldier of India was altogether of a
different kind. When he became a soldier, he did
not cease to be a dvilian. He severed no family
ties ; he abandoned no civil rights. He was not the
outcast, but the stay and the pride of his house. He
visited his home at stated times. He remitted to it
9 large part of his pay. It was a decorous boast in

HEEEDITAEY SOLDIEES.

255

many families that generation after generation had 1807 - 1809 ,
eaten the Company’s salt. Often, indeed, in one
household you might see the Past, the Present, and
the Future of this coveted military service. There
■was the ancient pensioner under the shade of the
banyan-tree in his native "nllage, ■who had stories to
teU of Lawrence, Coote, and Medo^ws; of battles
fought ■with the French ; of the long war with Hyder
and the later struggles with his son. There was the
Sepoy, on furlough from active service, in the prime
of his life, who had his stories also to tell of “ the
great Lord’s brother,” the younger Wellesley, of
Harris and Baird, perhaps of “ Bikrum Sahib” and-Abercrombie
Egypt, and how “Lick Sahib,” the fine old man,
when provisions were scarce in the camp, had ridden
thr'ough the lines, eating dried pulse for his dinner.

And there was the bright-eyed, supple-limbed, quick-
witted boy, who looked forward with eager expect-
ancy to the time when he would be pennitted to
take his father’s place, and serve under some noted
leader. It was no fond delusion, no trick of our self-
love, to believe in such pictures as this. The Com-
pany’s Sepoys had a genuine pride in their colours,
and the classes from which they were drawn rejoiced
in their connexion with the paramount State. It was
honourable service, sought by the very flower of the
people, and to be dismissed from it was a hea’vj
punishment and a sore disgrace.

Strong as were these ties, the people were bound
to the military service of the Company by the still
stronger ties of self-interest. For not only were the Civil privi-
Sepoys, as has been said, well cared-for as soldiers
— ^weU paid and well pensioned — ^but, as civilians,
they had large prmleges which others did not enjoy.

Many of them, belonging to the lesser yeoman^ of

256

THE SErOT AKMY— ITS DECLINE.

JS07.1809.

TLe Sepoy
and his
OMcei'.

tte country, -were possessors of, or shareliolders in,
small landed estates. And thus endowed, they re-
joiced greatly in a regulation which gave the Sepoy
on furlough a right to he heard before other suitors
in our civil courts.* In a country whose people are
inordinately given to litigation, and where justice is
commonly slow-paced, this was so prodigious a boon,
that entrance to the service was often sought for the
express purpose of securing this valuable precedence,
and the soldier-member of the family thus became
the representative of his whole house. In this con-
nexion of the soldiery with hereditary rights in the
soil, there was an additional guarantee for his loyalty
and good conduct. He was not merely a soldier — a
component unit of number two company, third file
from the right; he was an important member of
society, a distinct individuality in his native village
no less than in his cantonment Lines. He retained
his self-respect and the respect of others ; and had a
personal interest in the stability of the Government
under which his rights were secured.

And whilst these extraneous advantages were at-
tached to his position as a soldier, of the Company,
there was nothing inherent in the service itself to
render it distasteful to him. His ofiicers were aliens
of another colour and another creed ; hut the Hindoo
was accustomed to foreign supremacy, and the Ma-
homedan, profoundly impressed with the mutabilities
of fortune, bowed himself to the stern necessities of
fate. As long as the Sepoy respected the personal

* This was a part only of the Parliamentary Committee of 1832,
civil privileges enjoyed by the native said that the withdrawal of these
soldier. A memorandum in the Ap- privileges had been regarded as an
pendix will show the full extent of especial grievance by the Sepoys —
the advantages conferred upon him but I have” failed to discover that
by this class-legislation. §ir Jasper they ever were withdrawn.
liicoUs, in his evidence before the

THE SEPOY AND HIS OFFICER.

2.57

qualities of the English oflBicei'. and the English officer ISW-lSSS
felt a personal attachment for the Sepoy, the relations
between them were in no degree marred by any con-
siderations of difference of race. There was a strong
sense of comradeship between them, which atoned for
the absence of other ties. The accidental severance
of which I have spoken was but short-lived.* In that
first quarter of the present century, which saw so
much hard fighting in the field, the heart of the
Sepoy officer again turned towards his men, and the
men looked up and clung to him with child-like con-
fidence and affection. To command a company, and,
in due course, a regiment of Sepoys, was still held to
be a worthy object of professional ambition. The
regiment, in those days, was the officer’s home, whe-
ther in camp, or cantonment, or on the line of march.

There was but little looking beyond ; little hankering
to leave it. To interest himself in the daily concerns
of the Sepoys, to converse with them off parade, to
enter into their feelings, to contribute to their com-
forts, were duties, the performance of which occupied
his time, amused his mind, and yielded as much
happiness to himself as it imparted to others.

There was, in truth, little to divert him from the
business of his profession or to raise up a barrier be-
tween him and his men. Intercourse with Europe
was rare and difficult. Neither the charms of Eng-
lish literature nor the attractions of English woman-
hood alienated his affections from the routine of

^ There had certainly been, before Mr. Dundas, referred to above, this is
Ihe mutiny in Southern India, a very alleged to have been one of the re-
Q\ilpable want of kindly consideration mote causes of the mutiny. It is
on the part of our English oflBcers stated that the English had ceasetl
for ihe native officers and men of the to ofler chairs to their native officer
Sepoy army. In the letter, written when visited by them. A favourab‘«
by the Ciiairman and Deputy-CJhair- reaction, however, seems afterwardit
naan of the East India Company, to to have set in.

258

THE SEPOY ARIVIY— ITS DECLINE.

1809-23.

Progress of
Centralisa-
lion.

military life, and made its details dull and dreary In
liis sight. He had subdued his habits, and \eiy
much his way of thinking, to the Orientalism by
which he was surrounded. He was glad to welcome
the native officer to his bungalow, to learn from him
the news of the Lines and the gossip of the Bazaar,
and to tell him, in turn, what were the chances of an-
other campaign and to what new station the regiment
was likely to be moved at the approaching annual
Relief. If there were any complaints in the regi-
ment, the grievance was stated with freedom on the
one side, and listened to -with interest on the otherl
If the men were right, there was a remedy ; if they
were wrong, there was an explanation. The Sepoy
looked to his officer as to one who had both the
power and the will to dispense ample justice to hiihi
In every battalion, indeed, the men turned to their'
commandant as the depository of aU their griefs, and;
the redresser of all their wrongs. They called him
their father, and he rejoiced to describe them as his:
“ babalogue” — ^his babes.

But in time the power was taken from him, and
with the power went also the will. A variety of
deteriorating circumstances occurred — some the in-
evitable growth of British progress in the East, and
some the results of ignorance, thoughtlessness, or
miscalculation on the part of the governing body.
ITie power of the English officer was curtailed and
his influence declined. The command of a regiment
had once been something more than a name. The
commanding-officer could promote his inen, could,
punish his men, could dress them and discipline them
as he pleased. The different battalions were caBerti
after the commander who had first led them to vie-!
tory, and they rejoiced to be so distinguished. Bui^i

RELAXATION OR OLD TIES.

259

little by little, tbis power, by tbe absorbing action of 1822 - 1835 ,
progressive centralisation, was taken out of Ms bands ;
and be wbo, supreme in bis own little circle, bad
been now a patriarch and now a despot, shrivelled
into tbe mouthpiece of tbe Adjutant-General’s office
and tbe instrument of Head-quarters. Tbe decisions
of the commanding officer were appealed against, and
frequently set aside. In tbe emphatic language of tbe
East, be was made to eat dirt in tbe presence of bis
men. The Sepoy, then, ceased to look up to him as
tbe centre of bis hopes and fears, and tbe command-
ing officer lost much of tbe interest which be before
took in bis men, when be knew bow much their
happiness and comfort depended upon bis individual
acts, and bow the discipline and good conduct of the
corps were the reflexion of bis personal efficiency.

And it happened that, about tbe same time, new England ia
objects of interest sprung up to render more com-^'^*“‘
plete tbe severance of tbe ties which bad once bound
tbe English officer to tbe native soldier. The second
quarter of tbe nineteenth century in India was a
period of progressive reform. We reformed our Go-
vernment and we reformed ourselves. Increased
facilities of intercourse with Europe gave a more
European, complexion to society. English news, Eng-
lish books, above all, English gentlewomen, made
their way freely and rapidly to India. The Over-
land Mail bringing news scarcely more than a month
old of tbe last new European revolution; tbe book-
club yielding its stores of light literature as fresh as
is commonly obtained from circulating libraries at
home ; and an avatar of fair young English maidens,
with tbe bloom of the Western summer on their
cheeks, yielded attractions beside which the gossip of
the lines and the feeble garrulity of the old Soubahdar

S 2

260

THE SEPOY AKJrr— ITS DEaiNE.

1822-35. -were very dreary and fatiguing. Little by little, the
Sepoy officer shook out the loose folds of his Ori-
entalism. Many had been wont, in the absence of other
female society, to solace themselves with the charms
of a dusky mate, and to spend much time in the re-
cesses of the Zenana. Bad as it was, when tried in
the crucible of Christian ethics, it was not without its
military advantages. The English officer, so mated,
learnt to speak the languages of the country, and to
understand the habits and feelings of the people ; and
he cherished a kindlier feeling for the native races
than he would have done if no such alliances had
been formed. But this custom passed away with the
cause that produced it. The English wife displaced
the native mistress. A new code of morals was recog-
nised ; and the Zenana was proscribed. With the ap-
pearance of the English gentlewoman in the military
cantonment there grew up a host of new interests
and new excitements, and the regiment became a
bore.

Rtaff employ- Whilst these influences were sensibly weakening
the attachment which had existed between the native
soldier and his English officer, another deteriorating
agent was at work with still more fatal effect. The
Staff was carrying off all the best officers, and un-
settling the rest. As the red line of British Empire
extended itself around new provinces, and the admi-
nistrative business of the State was thus largely in-
creased, there was a demand for more workmen than
the Civil Service could supply, and the military esta-
blishment of the Company was, therefore, indented
upon for officers to ffU the numerous civil and poli-
tical posts thus opened out before them. Extensive
surveys were to be conducted, great public works
were to be executed, new irregular regiments were to

THE DRAINAGE OE THE STAFF.

261

be raised, and territories not made subject to the
“ regulations” "were, for the most part, to be adminis-
tered by military men. More lucrative, and held to
be more honourable than common regimental duty,
these appointments were eagerly coveted by the officers
of the Company’s army. The temptation, indeed,
was great. The means of marrying, of providing for
a family, of securing a retreat to Europe before en-
feebled by years or broken down by disease, were
presented to the officer by this detached emplojunent.
And if these natural feelings were not paramount,
there was the strong incentive of ambition or the
purer desire to enter upon a career of more active
utility. The number of officers with a regiment was
thus reduced ; but numbers are not strength, and
still fewer might have sufficed, if they had been a
chosen few. But of those who remained some lived
in a state of restless expectancy, others were sunk
in sullen despair. It was not easy to find a Sepoy
officer, pure and simple, with no aspirations beyond
his regiment, cheerful, content, indeed, proud of his
position. AU that was gone. The officer ceased to
rejoice in his work, and the men saw his heart was
not with them.

There were some special circumstances, too, which
at this time — during the administrations of Lord
Amherst and Lord WiUiam Bentinck — tended to
aggravate these deteriorating influences both upon
the officers and the men of the Sepoy regiments.
Since the subsidence of the spirit of disaffection,
which had pervaded the Coast Army in 1806, there
had been no obtrusive manifestations of discontent in
the Sepoy’s mind. He had done his duty faithfully
and gallantly in the great wars, which Lord Hastings

] 822 - 35 .

262

THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECL^'E.

1822. had conducted to a triumphant issue ; but -when peace'
came again, he again, after a while, began to take
stock of his troubles and to listen to strange reports.
One more illustration may be drawn from Madras,
before the Bengal Army claims a monopoly of the
record. In the early spring of 1822, a paper was
dropped in the Cavalry Lines of Arcot, setting forth
Mahomedau that the followers of Mahomed, having been sub-
Gncvances. power of the English, suffered great

hardships — that being so subjected, their prayers were
not acceptable to the Almighty, and that, therefore,
in great numbers they were dying of cholera morbus
— ^that the curse of God was upon them ; and that,
therefore, it behoved them to make a great effort for
the sake of their reli^on. There were countless
Hindoos and Mussulmans between Arcot and Delhi.
But the Europeans being few, it would be easy to slay
the whole in one day. Let them but combine, and
the result would be certain. There was no time, it
said, to be lost. The English had taken all the
Jagheers and Inams of the people of the soil, and
now they were about to deprive them of employment.
A number of European regiments had been called
for, and in the course of six months all the native
battalions would be disbanded. Let, then, the senior
Soubahdar of each regiment instruct the other Sou-
bahdars, and let them instruct the Jemadars, and so
on, tiU all the Sepoys were instructed, and the same
being done at Vellore, at Chittore, at Madras, and
other places, then, on a given signal, the whole
should rise on one day. The day fixed was Sunday,
the 17th of March. A Naick and ten Sepoys were
to proceed at midnight to the house of each Eu-
ropean, and Hli him, without remorse, in his bed.
This done, the regiments would be placed under the

GRIEVA^"CES OF THE SOLDIERY.

2G3

command of tlie native oificers, and the Soubahdars 1822 .
sliould have the pay of Colonels. It was always thus.

It is always thus. A little for the Faith, and all for
the Pocket.

From whomsoever this paper may have emanated,
the attempt to corrupt the Sepoys was a failure. It
was picked up in the Lines of the Sixth Cavalry, and
another nearly resembling it was dropped in the Lines
of the Eighth — but both were carried at once to the
commanding of&cer of the station. Colonel Foulis
took his measures with promptitude and vigour. He
assembled the regimental commanders, imparted to
them the contents of the paper, and desired them to
place themselves in communication with the native
officers whom they most trusted. Having done this,
he uTote to the commandants of the several stations
named in the paper. But they could see no signs of
disaffection ; and the appointed day passed by without
even an audible murmur of discontent. But not
many days afterwards, the Governor of Madras re- Sir Tlioaita
ceived by the post a letter in Hindostanee, purporting
to come from the principal native officers and Sepoys
of the Army, setting forth the grievances under which
they suffered as a body. The complaint was that all
the wealth and aU the honour went to the white
Sirdars, espeedaUy to the civilians, whilst for the
soldier there was nothing but labour and grief. “ If
we Sepoys take a country,” they said, “ by the sword,
these whore-son cowardly civil Sirdars enter that
country and rule over it, and in a short time fill
their coffers with money and go to Europe — ^but if a
Sepoy labour all his life, he is not five couries the
better.” Under the Mahomedan Government, it had
been different, for when victories were gained,

Jagheers were given to the soldiers, and high offices

2G4

THE SETOY AEMY — ITS DECLINE.

1S22. distributed among them. But under tlie Company,
everything was given to the Civil Service. “ A single
Collector’s peon has an authority and greatness in the
country which cannot be expressed. But that peon
does not fight like a Sepoy.” Such, in effect, was the
plaint of the native soldiery, as conveyed to Governor
Jtunro. It may have been the work of an individual,
as might have been also the papers picked up in the
lines of Arcot ; but it is certain that both documents
expressed sentiments which may be supposed at aU
times to lie embedded in the Sepoy’s mind, and which
need but little to bring them, fully developed, above
the surface.*

The relations between the English officer and the
native soldier were better then than they had been
sixteen years before. But these relations were sadly
weakened, and a heavy blow was given to the disci-
pline and efficiency of the Indian army, when, two
years later, the military establishments of the Three
reorganised. Then every regiment
of two battalions became two separate regiments, and
the officers attached to the original corps were told off
alternately to its two parts — “ all the odd or uneven
May S, 1S24. numbers,” said the General Order, “ to the first, and
the even numbers to the second;” by which process it
happened that a large number of officers were detached
from the men with whom they had been associated
throughout many years of active service. The evil
of this was clearly seen at the time, and a feeble com-
promise was attempted. “ It is not intended,” said
the General Order, “ that in carrying the present
orders into effect, officers should be pei'manently re-
moved from the particular battalion in which they

♦ It was to ibis event that Sir
Thomas Munro alluded in his re-

marKable minute on the dangers of
a Free Press in India.

Vi’xn WITH BCEMAU.

2G5

may long have served and wished to remain, provided 1S24
that by an interchange between officers standing the
same number of removes from promotion, each could
be retained in his particular battalion, and both
are willing to make the exchange.” In effect, this
amounted to little or nothing, and a large number of
officers drifted away from the battalions in which
they had been reared from boyhood, and strangers
glided into their place.

Bad as at any time must have been such a change The Burmese
as this, in its influence upon the morale of the Sepoy
army, the evil was greatly enhanced by falling upon
evil times. The best preservative, and the best re-
storative of military spirit and discipline, is commonly
a good stirring war. But the Sepoy, though not un-
willing to fight, was somewhat dainty and capricious
about his fighting-ground. A battle-field in Hin-
dustan or the Deccan was to his taste ; but he was
disquieted by the thought of serving in strange
regions, of which he had heard only vague fables,
beyond inaccessible mountain-ranges, or still more
dreaded wildernesses of water. With the high-caste,
fastidious Bengal Sepoy the war with Burmah was
not, therefore, a popular war. The Madras Sepoy,
more cosmopolitan and less nice, took readily to the
transport vessel ; and a large part of the native force
was drawn from the Coast Army. But some Bengal
regiments were also needed to take part in the opera-
tions of the war, and then the system began to fail
us. To transport troops by sea from Calcutta to
Rangoon would have been an easy process. But the
Bengal Sepoy had enlisted only for service in coun-
tries to which he could march ; to take ship was not
in his bond. The regiments, therefore, were marched
to the frontier station of Chittagong, and there as-

266

THE SEPOY ARMY— ITS DECLINE.

1824 . sembled for tlie landward invasion of the Burmese
country.

Without any apparent symptoms of discontent,
The Mutiny some corps had already marched, when, in October, the
pore^™'^' hicident occurred of which I am about to write, an in-
cident which created a most powerful sensation front
one end of India to the other, and tended greatly to
impair the loyalty and discipline of the Bengal Sepoy.
The Forty-seventh Regiment had been warned for
foreign service, and was waiting at Barrackpore, a
few miles from the Presidency, whilst preparations
were being made for its march in the cold weather.
To wait is often to repent. Inactive in cantonments
during the rainy season, and in daily intercourse
with the men of other regiments, who had been
warned for the same sendee, the Forty-seventh, unin-
fluenced by any other external causes, would have
lost any ardour which might have possessed them
when first ordered to march against a barbarous
enemy who had insulted their flag. But it happened
that ominous tidings of disaster came to them from
the theatre of w'ar The British troops had sustained
a disaster at Ramoo, the proportions of which had
been grossly exaggerated in the recital, and it was
believed that the Burmese, having cut up our batta-
lions, or driven them into the sea, were sweeping on
to the invasion of Bengal. The native newspapers
bristled with alarming announcements of how the
Commander-in-Chief had been killed in action and
the Governor-General had poisoned himself in de-
spair; and there was a belief throughout all the
lower provinces of India that the rule of the Company ,
was coming to an end. The fidelity of the Sepoy
army requires the stimulus of continued success.
Nothing tries it so fatally as disaster. When,

THE TROOPS AT BARTvACKPORE.

267

therefore, news came that the war had opened with a
great failure, humiliating to the British power, and
all kinds of strange stories relating to the difficulties
of the country to be traversed, the deadliness of the
climate to be endured, and the prowess of the enemy
to be encountered, forced their way into circulation
in the Bazaars and in the Lines, the •willingness
which the Sepoys had once shown to take part in
the operations beyond the frontier began to subside,
and they were eager to find a pretext for refusing to
march on such hazardous ser-vice. And, unhappily,
one was soon found. There was a scarcity of avail-
able carriage-cattle for the movement of the troops.
Neither bullocks nor drivers were to be hired, and
fabulous prices were demanded from purchasers for
•wretched starvelings not equal to a day’s journey.
For the use of the regiments which had already
marched, Bengal had been well-nigh swept out, and
the reports which had since arrived rendered it diffi-
cult to persuade men voluntarily to accompany as
camp-followers an expedition fraught •with such pecu-
liar perils. All the efforts of the Commissariat failed
to obtain the required supply of cattle ; and so the
Sepoys were told to supply themselves. In this con-
juncture, it would seem that a new lie was circulated
through the Lines of Barrackpore. It was said that
as the Bengal regiments could not, for want of cattle,
be marched to Chittagong, they ■would be put on
board ship and carried to Rangoon, across the Bay
of Bengal. Murmurs of discontent then developed
into oaths of resistance. The regiments warned for
service in Burmah met in nightly conclave, and
vowed not to cross the sea.

StiU. foremost in this movement, the Forty-seventh
Regiment was commanded by Colonel Cartwright.

1S24.

268

THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE.

1824. Rightly measuring the difficulty, and moved with
compassion for the Sepoy, who really had just ground
of complaint, he offered to provide cattle from his
private funds ; and all the refuse animals, either too
old or too young for service, were got together, and
the Government offered to advance money for their
purchase. But the terrible ban of “ Too Late” was
written across these conciliatory measures. The re-
giment w'as already tainted with the ineradicable virus
of mutiny, which soon broke out on parade. The
Sepoys declared that they w'ould not proceed to
Burmah by sea, and that they would not march
unless they w'ere guaranteed the increased allowances
known in the jargon of the East as “ double batta.”
This was on the 30th of October. On the 1st of
November, another parade w'as summoned. The be-
haviour of the Sepoj’s w-as w'orse than before — violent,
outrageous, not to be forgiven ; and they remained
masters of the situation throughout both the day and
night. Then the Commander-in-Chief appeared on
the scene. A hard, strict disciplinarian, with no
knowledge of the native army, and a bitter prejudice
against it. Sir Edward Paget was a man of the very
metal to tread down insurrection with an iron heel,
regardless both of causes and of consequences. He
carried with him to Barrackpore two European regi-
ments, a battery of European artillerj’, and a troop
of the Governor-General’s Body-guard. Next morn-
ing the native regiments found themselves in tlie
presence of the English troops ; but still they did not
know the peril that awaited them, and, with a child-
like obstinacy, they were not to be moved from their
purpose of resistance. Some attempt was made at
explanation — some attempt at conciliation. But it
was feeble and ineffectual ; perhaps not understood.

THE BAHRACKPOEE MASSACRE.

269

They were told, then, that they must consent to
march, or to ground their arms. Still not seeing
the danger, for they were not told that the Artillery
guns were loaded with grape, and the gunners ready
to fire,* they refused to obey the word ; and so the
signal for slaughter was given. The guns opened
upon them. The mutineers were soon in panic flight.
Throwing away their arms and accoutrements, they
made for the river. Some were shot down; some
were drowned. There was no attempt at battle.
None had been contemplated. The muskets with
which the ground was strewn were found to be un-
loaded.

Then the formalities of the military law were called
in to aid the stem decisions of the grape-shot. Some
of the leading mutineers were convicted, and hanged ;
and the regiment was struck out of the Army List.
But this display of vigour, though it checked mutiny
for the time, tended only to sow broadcast the seeds
of future insubordinations. It created a bad moral
effect throughout the whole of the Bengal army.
From Bazaar to Bazaar the neAvs of the massacre ran
with a speed almost telegraphic. The regiments,
which had already marched to the frontier, were dis-
cussing the evil tidings with mingled dismay and dis-
gust before the intelligence, sent by special express,
had reached the ears of the British chiefs. “ They
are your own men whom you have been destroying,”
said an old native officer; and he could not trust
himself to say more.f The Bengal regiments, with
the expeditionary force, had soon a grievance of
their own, and the remembrance of this dark tragedy

^ It is doubtful, indeed, whetlier Burmese War.” By T. C. Robertson
they knew that the guns were in the to whom was entrusted the political
rear of the European regiments. conduct of the war,

f Political Incidents of tlie first

1824.

270

THE SEPOY ARMY — ^ITS DECLINE.

IS25. increased tlie bitterness with Avhich they discussed it.
The high-caste men were writhing under an order
which, on the occupation of Arracan, condemned the
whole body of the soldiery to work, as labourers, in
the construction of their barracks and lines. The
English soldier fell to with a Vv'ill ; the Madras Sepoy
cheerfully followed his example. But the Bengal
soldier asked if Brahmins and Rajpoots were to be
treated like Coolies, and, for a while, there was an
apprehension that it might become necessary to make
another terrible example after the Barrackpore pat-
tern. But this was fortunately averted. General
Morrison called a parade, and addressed the recusants.
The speech, sensible and to the point, Avas translated
by Captain Phillips ; and so admirable Avas his free
rendering of it, so perfect the manner in Avhich he
clothed it Avith familiar language, making every Avord
carry a meaning, every sentence strike some chord of
sympathy in the Sepoy’s bi'east, that Avhen he had
done, the high-caste Hindostanees looked at each
other, understood Avhat they read in their comrades’
faces, and fortliAAith stripped to their Avork.

Thus Avas an incipient mutiny checked by a few
telling Avords. And the sad event which had gone
before might haA^e been averted also if there had
been as much tact and addi’css as “ promptitude and
decision.” A few sentences of AA'cll-chosen, weU-de-
livered Hindostanee, on Ibat fatal November morning,
might have brought the Sepoys back to reason and
to loyalty. But thej’’ had the benefit of neither wise
counsel from AAUthin nor kindly exhortation from
Avithout Deprived, by the reconstruction of the
Army, of the officers whom they had long known and
trusted, they were more than eA'er in need of external
aid to bring them back to a right state of feeling.

HALF-BATTA.

271

They wanted a General of Division, such as Malcolm 1S25-S6.
or Ochterlony, to reawaken their soldierly instincts —
their pride in their colours, their loyalty to their
Salt. But, instead of such judicious treatment as
would have shown them their own folly, as in a glass,
the martinets of the Horse Guards, stern in their
uusympathising ignorance, their ruthless prejudices,
had, in our own territories, at the very seat of go-
vernment, in the presence of no pressing danger, no
other lessons to teach, no other remedies to apply,
than those winch were to be administered at the
bayonet’s point and the cannon’s mouth.

■ With the return of peace came new disquietudes. T'le Half-
A reign of Retrenchment commenced. Alarmed by ^ ^ ^
the expenses of their military establishments, the
Company sent out imperative orders for their reduc-
tion-orders more than once issued before, more than
once disobeyed. Blows of this kind commonly fall
upon the weakest — upon those least able to endure
them. So it happened that the condition of the re-
gimental officer having, by a variety of antecedent
circumstances, been shorn of well-nigh all its advan-
tages, was rendered still more grievous and intolerable
by the curtailment of his pecuniary allowances. An
order, known in military history as the HaF-Batta
Order, was passed, by which all officers stationed
within a certain distance from the Presidency were
deprived of a large per-centage of their pay.* The
order excited the utmost dismay throughout the
Army ; but the discontent which it engendered vented
itself in words. Twice before the officers of the Com-
pany’s army had resented similar encroachments, and

* Or, in strict professional Ian- former, wliieh was small,, was en-
gua^e, his allowances. The gross hanced bj several substantial acces-
salary of an Indian officer was known series, as tentage, house-rent, and
^ his ‘^pay and alloivauces.” Tiie batta, or 'field allowance.

272

THE SEPOY umiY— ITS OECLIXE.

1825-35

Abolition of
C'orporal Pa-
nishmeat.

had been prepared to strike in defence of their asserted
rights. But this last blow did not rouse them to re-
bellion. Never before had justice and reason been so
clearly upon their side ; but, keenly as they felt their
wongs, they did not threaten the Government they
sen’-ed, but loyally protested against the treatment to
which they had been subjected. The humours of
which their memorials could not wholly relieve them,
a Press, virtually free, carried off like a great conduit.
The excitement expended itself in newspaper para-
graphs, and gradually subsided. But it left behind it
an after-growth of unanticipated evils. The little zeal
that was left in the regimental officer was thus crushed
out of him, and the Sepoy, who had watched the
decline, little by little, of the power once vested in
the English captain, now saw him injured and humi-
liated by his Government, without any power of
resistance; saw that he was no longer under the
special protection of the State, and so lost all respect
for an instrument so feeble and so despised.

And as though it were a laudable achievement
thus to divest the native soldier of all fear of his
European officer, another order went forth during
the same interval of peace, abolishing the punishment
of the lash throughout the Sepoy army in India. So
little was he a drunkard and a ruffian, that it was a
rare spectacle to see a black soldier writhing under
the drummer’s cat. But when the penalty, though
still retained in the European army, became illegal
and impossible among them, the native soldiery felt
that another blow was struck at military authority —
another tie of restraint unloosed. It was looked upon
less os a boon than as a concession — ^less as the growth
of our humanity than of our fear. So the Sepoy did
•not love us better; but held us a little more in con-
tempt.

GENERAL DETERIORATION.

273

There were great diversities of sentiment upon this
point, and some, whose opinions were entitled to
respect, believed in the wisdom of the measure. But
the weight of authority was against it,* and, some
ten years afterwards, Hardinge revived what Ben-
tinck had abolished. But even before the act of
abolition, by a variety of concurrent causes, the
character and the conduct of the Sepoy Army were
so impaired, that an officer who had served long
with them, and knew them well, declared, in his
evidence before a Committee of Parliament, that “ in
all the higher qualifications of soldiers, in devoted-
ness to the service, readiness for any duty they may
be called upon to perform, cheerfulness under priva-
tions, confidence and attachment to their officei’s, un-
hesitating and un calculating bravery in the field,
■without regard either to the number or the character
of the enemy, the native soldier is allowed by aU the
best-informed officers of the service, by those who
have most experience, and are best acquainted with
their character, to have infinitely deteriorated.”t

* Numerous illustrations might be
cited, but none more significant than
the following anecdote, told by Mr,
Charles Eaikes ; “ I recollect a con-
versation which I had in 1839 with
an old pensioned Soubahdar. I in-
quired of him how the measure would
work. He replied, that the abolition
of the punishment would induce some
classes to enter the Army who hud
not done so before. ‘But, Sahib,’

said the old man, * Fouj-heh-durr
hogya.^ (The Army has ceased to
fear.)” Another native officer said :
“ The English, to manage us rightly,
should hold the whip in one hand
and the mehtoys (sweetmeats) in the
other. You have dropped the whip,
and now hold out sweets to us in
both hands.”

f Evidence of Captain Macau in
1832.

1832.

274

THE SEPOY AMY— ITS DECLINX

The War In
Al’ghamatau*

im.

CHAPTER III.

THE VAR IN ATGHANISTAN — PERNICIOUS EPEECTS OE BETEAT— THE Alff-
NEXATION OP SCINBE— RESULTS OP EXTENSION OP EMPIRE— THE INDUS
ALLOWANCES— MUTINY OP THE THIRTY-POURTH EESIMENT— EMBARRASS-
MENTS OP GOVERNMENT— THE MARCH OP THE SIXTY- FOXTRTH— MUTINY
AT SHPUtARPORE— BISAFPECTION IN THE MADRAS ARMY.

Peace is never long-lived in India, and tlie Army
was soon again in the bustle and excitement of active
service. There ivas a long war ; and, if it had been a
glorious one, it might have had a salutary effect upon
the disposition of the Sepoy. But when all his sol-
dierly qualities were thus, as it were, at the last gasp,
the War in Afghanistan came to teach him a new
lesson, and the worst, at that time, which he could
have been taught. He learnt then, for the first time,
that a British army is not invincible in the field;
that the great “ Ikhbal,” or Fortune, of the Company,
which had carried us gloriously through so many
great enterprises, might sometimes disastrously fail us ;
he saw the proud colours of the British nation defiled
in the bloody snows of Afghanistan, and he believed
that our reign was hastening to a close. The charm
of a century of conquest was then broken. In all
parts of Upper India it w’as the talk of the Bazaars
that the tide of victory had turned against the Fe-
ringhees, and that they would soon be driven into

THE AFGHAN WAR.

275

the sea. Then the Sikh arose and the Mahratta ho- 1 S 4142 .
stirred himself, rejoicing in our humiliation, and
eagerly watching the next move. Then it was that
those amongst us, who knew best what was seething
in the heart of Indian society, were “ashamed to
look a native in the face.” The crisis was a perilous
one, and the most experienced Indian statesmen re-
garded it with dismay, not knowing what a day
might produce. They had no faith in our allies, no 1S12.
faith in our soldiery. An Army of Retribution, under
a wise and trusted leader, went forth to restore the
tarnished lustre of the British name ; but ominous
whispers soon came from his camp that that Army
was tainted — that the Sepoy regiments, no longer
assured and fortified by the sight of that ascendant
Star of Fortune which once had shone with so bright
and steady a light, shrunk from entering the passes
which had been the grave of so many of their com-
rades. It was too true. The Sikhs were tampering
TOth their fidelity. Brahmin emissaries were endea-
vouring to swear them on the Holy Water not to
advance at the word of the English commander.

Nightly meetings of delegates from the different re-
giments were being held; and, perhaps, we do not
even now know how great was the danger. But the
sound discretion and excellent tact of Pollock, aided
by the energies of Henry Lawrence and Richmond
Shakespear, brought the Sepoys to a better temper,
and, when the word was given, they entered the
dreaded passes, and, confiding in their leader, car-
ried victory with them up to the walls of the Afghan
capital

The Sepoy did his duty well under PoUock. He
had done his duty well under Nott, who spoke with
admiration of his “ beautiful regiments,” and man-

X 2

276

THE SEPOY AEMY— ITS DECUXE.

1S43. fully resented any imputation cast upon them. And
'when, after the British Army had been disentangled
from the defiles of Afghanistan, war was made against
the Ameers of Scinde, the Sepoy w'ent gallantly to
the encounter with the fierce Belloochee fighting-
man, and Napier covered him with praise. Then
there was another war, and the native regiments of
the Company went bravely up the slopes of Maha-
rajpore, and turned not aside from the well-planted,
well-manned batteries of the turbulent Mahrattas.
But peace came, and with peace its dangers. Scinde
had become a British province, and the Sepoy, who
had helped to conquer, had no wish to garrison the
country.

C*'*'^ueafof * immediate result of well-nigh every

sSe. annexation of Territory, by which our Indian empire
has been extended, may be clearly discerned in the
shattered discipline of the Sepoy Army. To extend
our empire without increasing our means of defence
was not theoretically unreasonable ; for it might
have been supposed that as the number of our enemies
was reduced by conquest and subjection, the necessity
for the maintenance of a great standing army was
diminished rather than increased. These annexations,
it was said, consolidated our own territories by eradi-
cating some native principality in the midst of them,
or else substituted one frontier, and perhaps a securer
one, for another. But the security of our empire lay
in the fidelity of our soldiery. To diminish the num-
ber of our enemies, and to extend the area of the
country to be occupied by our troops, was at the same
time to diminish the importance of the Sepoy, and to
render his service more irksome to him ; for it sent
him to strange places far away from his home, to do
the work of military Police. It frittered away in small

DIFFICULTIES OF AKNEXATIOS. 277

detached bodies the limited European force at the dis- 1S43-44..
posal of the Indian Government, or massed large ones
on a distant frontier. This extension of territory,
indeed, whilst it made us more dependent upon our
native troops, made that dependence more hazardous.

The conversion of Scinde into a British province, by
which our long line of annexations was commenced,
had burnt this truth into our history before Lord
Dalhousie appeared upon the scene. For indeed it
was a sore trial to the Sepoy to be posted in a
dreary outlying graveyard of this hind, far away
from his home and his people — ^far beyond the limits
of the empire in which he had enlisted to serve.

And when it was proposed to take from him the
additional allowances, which had been issued to the
troops, on active service in an enemy’s country, on
the plea that they had subsided into the occupation
of British cantonments, he resented this severe logic,
and rose against the retrenchment He did not see
why, standing upon the same ground, he should not
receive the same pay, because the red line of the
British boundary had been extended by a flourish of
the pen, and the population of the country had by
the same magic process been converted into British
subjects ; and still less easily could he reconcile him-
self to the decision when he thought that the Sepoy
himself had contributed to bring about the result that
was so injurious to him ; that he had helped to win
a province for his employers, and, in return for this
good service, had been deprived of part of his pay.

In the old time, when the Company’s troops con-
quered a country, they had profited in many ways by
the achievement, but now they were condemned to
suffer as though gallantry were a crime.

In more than a camcl-load of documents the story

278

THE SEPOY AEMY — ITS DECLINE.

1844. lies recorded; but it must be briefly narrated bere.

MatinyoftLe In the month of February, 1844, Governor-General

Thirty-fourtli. j]i];eQi)orough, being then absent from his Council in
the Upper Provinces, received the disheartening in-
telligence that the Thirty-fourth Sepoy Regiment of
Bengal, which had been warned for service in Scinde,
had been halted at Ferozepore, It had refused to
enter our newly-acquired province, unless its services
were purchased by the grant of the additional allow-
ances given to the soldiery beyond the Indus in time
of war. The distressing character of the intelligence
was aggravated by many circumstances of time and
place. In a moment, EUenborough’s quick percep-
tions had grappled the whole portentous truth. Our
troops were mutinying for pay, on the Punjab
frontier, almost in the presence of the disorderly
masses of Sikh troops, who, gorged with the donatives
they had forced from a weak Government, were then
dominating the empire. Other regiments were coining
up, on the same service, who might be expected to
follow the rebellious lead of the Thirty-fourth ; and
so EUenborough and Napier might have found them-
selves with the province they had just conquered on
their hands, and no means of securing its military
occupation, without destro 3 dng the authority of Go-
vernment by humiliating concessions.

In this conjuncture, the first thing that EUen-
borough did was the best that could have been done.
He delegated to the Commander-in-Chief the full
powers of the Governor-General in Council for the
suppression of mutiny in the Army. But, how were
those powers to be exercised? Doubt and perplexity,
and something nearly approaching consternation, per-
vaded Army Head-Quarters. The Seventh Bengal
Cavalry, on the line of march to the frontier, had

PHOGRESS OF MUTINY.

279

broken into open mutiny, and in spite of all tlie ef-
forts of tbeir officers, wlio had guaranteed to pay them
from their own funds the allowances they demanded,
the troopers had refused to obey the trumpet-call to
march, and were halted, therefore, sullen and obsti-
nate, in the neighbourhood of Ferozepore. Some
companies of Native Artillery had already refused
to march, and there were rumours of other regi-
ments being on the eve of declaring their refusal.
The most obvious course, under such circumstances,
was to march the recusant regiments back to one or
more of the large stations, as Loodhianah and Meerut,
where European troops were posted, and there to
disband them. But sinister whispers were abroad that
the sympathies of the Europeans, in this instance, were
with the native soldiery. One regiment of the Line,
it was reported, had openly declared that it would not
act against the Sepoys, who were demanding no more
than their rights. There were Sikh emissaries from
beyond the Sutlej doing their best to debauch the
Sepoys by offering both their sympathy and their
assistance. Dick, the General of Division, declared
his belief that an order to the mutineers to march
back for disbandment would not be obeyed ; and a
violent collision at such a time would have set the
whole frontier in a blaze. The project of disbandment
was, therefore, suspended ; and all the more readily, as
even at Head-Quarters there was a belief that, al-
though the recusant troops might have had no reason-
able ground of complaint, the actual state of the case
with respect to the Scinde pay and allowances had not
been properly explained to them.^

* The extraordinary allowances — Indus in 1838, on their march to
the withdrawal of which had created Candahar and Oaubul. They were
all this ill feeliii" — were originally withdrawn from the troops in Soii^e
granted when the troops crossed the early in 1840, when there seemed to

IS44..

280

TUB SEPOY AEMY— ITS DECLINE.

IS14. Uncondemned, the mutinous regiments were or-
dered back to the stations from which they had
mai'ched, to await the result of a reference to the
Governor- General; and other corps, warned for
the Scinde service, came up to the frontier. Dick’s
first and wisest impulse had been to halt the re-
giments marching to Ferozepore, in order that
they might not run the risk of contamination by
the tainted corps, or the corrupting influence of
the Sikhs. But, by some strange fatality, this judi-
cious measure had been revoked; the I’egiments
marched to the frontier; and Dick’s difficulties in-
Tlie Sixty- creased. The Sixtj^-ninth refused to embark, unless
Pourthr Indus allowances were guaranteed to them.

By the exertions of the officers, one-half of the regi-
ment was afterwards brought round to a sense of
their duty ; they loaded their carriage cattle, marched
to the banks of the river, and declared their willing-
ness to embark on the boats. They ought to have
been embarked at once with the colours of their
regiment. Their comrades would then have followed
them ; and other regiments, moved by the good ex-
ample, might also have asserted their fidelity. But the
golden opportunity was lost ; and all example was in
the way of evil. 'The Fourth Regiment, trusted over-
much by its commanders, followed the Sixty-ninth
into mutiny at Ferozepore, and such was the conduct
of the Sepoys, that Philip Goldney, a man of equal
courage and capacity, suddenly called to the scene
of tumult, drew upon one of the foremost of the
mutineers, and a younger officer, moved to passion

he nolongerenyextrsordinarydnlies were restored; but they were anaiu
to be performed by them. When reduced from the 1st ol July, 1843
the insurrection broke out in Af- after the close of the war in Afshan-
ghanistan, and retributory operations istan and the conquest of S^ j u de.
were commenced, the aliowimees

CONDUCT OF THE SIXTY-FODKTH.

281

by tbeir violence, struck out with a bayonet, and 1S4*.
wounded two soldiers in the face. Those were days
when mutiny did not mean massacre, and the Sepoy
did not turn upon his officer. But neither regiment
would march. On many hard-fought fields Sir Robert
Dick had proved himself to be a good soldier, but
he was not equal to such a crisis as this : so Ellen-
borough at once ordered him to be cushioned in some
safer place.

In the mean while, aid to the embarrassed Govern-
ment was coming from an unexpected quarter. The
Sixty-fourth Regiment of Sepoys had formed part of The Sixty-
that unfortunate detachment known in history
Wilde’s Brigade, which had been sent, before Pollock’s
arrival at Peshawur, to carry the Khybur Pass, with-
out guns and without provisions. It had afterwards
served with credit during the second Afghan cam-
paign, since the close of which it had been cantoned
at the frontier station of Loodhianah. The Sepoys
had manifested a strong reluctance to serve in Scinde,
and had addressed to the Adjutant - General more
than one urzee., or petition, couched in language of
complaint almost akin to mutiny. From Loodhianah
the regiment had been ordered dowm to Benares.

On the 15th of February it reached Umballah, then
become the Head-Quarters of the Sirhind division of
the Army, which General Fast, an old officer of the
Company’s service, commanded. Well able to con-
verse in the language of the country, and knowing,
from long intercourse with them, the character and
feelings of the native soldiery, Fast believed that
something might still be done to bring the regiment
back to its allegiance. So he halted the Sixty-fourth
at Umballah, and summoned the native officers to his
presence. Questioned as to the disposition of the

282

THE SEPOY AEMT — ITS DECLINE.

1S44. regiment, they one and all declared that the men had
never refused to march to Scinde; that they were
still willing to march ; that only on the evening
before the native otficers had severally ascertained
the fact from their respective companies; that the
matter of the allowances would not influence the
Sepoys ; and that the mutinous U7'zees had emanated
only from a few bad characters in the regiment;
perhaps, it was added, from a Sepoy who had been
already dismissed. From these and other representa-
tions, it appeared to the General that the Sixty-fourth
really desired to wipe out the stain, which the urzees
had fixed upon their character, and, believing in this,
he recommended that they should be permitted, to
march to Scinde. Under certain stringent conditions,
the Commander-in-Ohief adopted the recommenda-
tion ; and so Moseley, with his Sepoys, again turned
his face towards the Indus.

The disposition of the regiment now seemed to he
so good ; it was marching with such apparent cheer-
fulness towards the dreaded regions, and setting so
good an example to others, that the Commander-in-
Chief was minded to stimulate its alacrity, and to
reward its returning fidelity, by a voluntary tender of
special pay and pension, and relaxations of the terms
of semce.* The language of these instructions was
somewhat vague, and Moseley, eager to convey glad

* *‘Iii addition to the full or unhealthy, and under no circum-
mai^ing hatta always allowed to stances be kept in Scinde beyond
re^meats serving in Scinde, still two years, while tlie indulgence of
higher advantages in regard to pay, furlough to visit their homes will, in
tc^tlier with the benefits of the re- the latter case, be extended to the
gulated family pension to the heirs men in the proportion enjoyed by
of who may die from disease eor^fis located at stations within the
contracted on The com- British frontier/' — Adjutant-

manding officer was also instructed General to Colonel Moseley, March
”lo make known to ifes oorps that 15, 1S44*] Sciude, however, had
it shall be brought hack to a station become a British ** province,'' and
in the provinces in one year In the was within the British frontier.”
event of the ensuing season proving

COLOXEL MOSELEY AND THE SIXTY-FOUnTn. 283

tidiDgs to his men, turned the vagueness to account 1844.
"by exaggerating the boon that was offered to them.

And so the error of Head-Quarters was made doubly
erroneous, and the Governor-General was driven wild
by the blunder of the Commander-in-Chief.

Whatsoever Head-Quarters might have intended to
grant, was contingent upon the good conduct of the
regiment. But before the letter had been received by
Moseley, on the line of march, mutiny had again
broken out in the ranks of the Sixty-fourth. At
Moodkhee, now so famous in the annals of Indian
warfare, the regiment, not liking the route that had
been taken, assumed a threatening front, and at-
tempted to seize the colours.* The petulance of the
hour was suppressed, and next day the regiment re-
sumed its march. But transitory as was the out-
break, it was mutiny in one of its worst forms.

On the second day, the Colonel received, at Tibbee,
the letter from Head-Quarters, on the subject of
the additional allowances. The outbreak at Mood-
khee had converted it into an historical document, to
be quietly put aside for purposes of future record. It
was, indeed, a dead letter. The fatal words “too
late” were already written across the page. But
Moseley laid eager hands upon it, as a living reality,
for present uses. The Sixty-fourth was plainly in an
excitable state. It had mutinied once on the march,
and, without the application of some very powerful
sedative, it might mutiny again. The outbreak at
Moodkhee had not been reported to Head-Quarters.

It might pass into oblivion as an ugly dream of the
past ; and the future might be rendered peaceful and
prosperous by the letter of the Adjutant-GeneraL So

* It was advisable to march the either coming from that province or
troops proceed.in^ to Scinde along a stationed on the frontier ; and it was
Toute which would not bring them especially desirable to mask Feroze-
into contact with other regiments, pore.

284

THE SEPOY AEMY — ITS DECLINE.

1841.

George Hun-
ter.

Moseley, having caused it to be translated into Hin-
dostanee, summoned a parade, and ordered it to be
read aloud to his men.

Tremendous as was this error — for it tendered to
the mutinous the reward intended only for the
faithful — ^its proportions were dwarfed by the after-
conduct of the infatuated Colonel. He put a gloss
of his own on the Head-Quarters’ letter, and told
the regiment that they would receive the old Indus
allowances given to Pollock’s Army.* Upon which
they set up a shout of exultation. And then the
Sixty-fourth pursued its journey to Scinde.

The horrible mistake which had thus been com-
mitted soon began to bear bitter fruit. The inevitable
pay-day came ; and Moseley, like a man who has
silenced the clamorous demands of the Present
by drawing a forged bill upon the Future, now saw
his gigantic folly staring him in the face. The crisis
came at Shikarpore. The Indus war-allowances were
not forthcoming, and the Sixty-fourth refused in a
body to receive their legitimate pay.

. There was then, under Governor Napier, com-
manding the troops in Scinde, an old Sepoy officer,
familiarly and affectionately known throughout the
Army as George Hunter. Of a fine presence, of a
kindly nature, and of a lively temperament, he led
all men captive by the sunny influences of his warm
heart and his flowing spirits ; whilst his manly courage
and resolution commanded a wider admiration and
respect. Of his conspicuous gallantry in action he
carried about with him the honourable insignia in an
arm maimed and mutilated by the crashing downward
blow of a J4t swordsman, as he was forcing one of

♦ Thb was ktiown among llie Se- np the soldier’s pay to twelve rupees
pojs as “ Pollock’s Baltiu” It made a montlu

GEORGE HUKTER.

285

the gates of Bhurtpore. In the whole wide circle of 184^-
the Army, there w'as scarcely one man whom the Sepoy
more loved and honoured ; scarcely one whose ap-
pearance on the scene at this moment could have had
a more auspicious aspect. But there are moods in
which we turn most angrily against those whom we
most love ; and General Hunter in this emergency
was as powerless as Colonel Moseley.

George Hunter was not a man to coquet with Mutiny of the
mutiny. He saw at a glance the magnitude of the
occasion, and he was resolute not to encourage its
further growth by any inopportune delay. The short
twilight of the Indian summer was already nearly
spent when news reached him that the regiment had
refused to receive its pay. Instantly calling a parade,
he declared his intention of himself paying the troops.

Darkness had now fallen upon the scene ; but lamps
were lit, and the General commenced his work. The
light company, as the one that had evinced the most
turbulent spirit, was called up first ; the Sepoys took
their pay to a man, and were dismissed to their Lines.

Of the company next called, four men had refused to
receive their pay, when Moseley went up to the
General, and told him that the w^hole regiment would
take their money quietly, if disbursed to them by
their own ofiEicers. Hunter had once refused this, but
now he consented, and again the effort to flatter the
corps into discipline was miserably unsuccessful. No
sooner was this reluctant consent wrung from the
General, than the parade was broken up with a
tumultuous roar. Filling the air with shouts, some-
times shaped into words of derision and abuse, the
Sepoys flocked to their Lines. In vain Hunter ordered
them to fall in ; in vain he implored them to re-
membei that they were soldiers. They turned upon

286

THE SEPOY AEMT — ^ITS DECLINE.

1844 . him with the declaration that they had been lured to
Scinde by a lie ; and when he stiU endeavoured to
restore order and discipline to the scattered rabble,
into which the re^ment had suddenly crumbled, they
threw stones and bricks at the fine old soldier and the
other officers who had gone to his aid.

Nothing more could be done on that night; so
Hunter went to his quartere, and waited anxiously for
the dawn. A morning parade had been previously
ordered, and when the General went to the ground,
he saw, to his exceeding joy, that the Sixty-fourth
were already drawn up — “ as fine-looking and steady
a body of men,” he said, “ as he could wish to see.”
No signs of disorder greeted him ; and as he inspected
company after company, calling upon all who had
complaints to make to come forward, the regiment
preserved its staid and orderly demeanour, and it
seemed as if a great shame held them all in inactivity
and silence.* Returning then to the head of the
column, drawn up left in front. Hunter proceeded to
resume the work which had been broken off so
uproariously on the preceding evening. Ten men of
one company refused their pay, but none others fol-
lowed their example. All noAV seemed to be pro-
ceeding to a favourable issue ; and Hunter believed
that the favourable disposition which had begun to
show itself might be confirmed by a suitable address.
So he prepared himself to harangue them.

The ways of the Sepoy are as unaccountable as the
ways of a child. It is impossible to fix the limits of
his anger, or rightly to discern the point at which his
good temper has really returned. Unstable and in-
consistent hia conduct baffles all powers of human

* Onlymt man came forrarii and his complaint was that he had been
passed orer m promotion

MUTIMY OF THE SIXTY-FOURTH.

287

comprehension. So it happened that just on the
seeming verge of success the ground crumbled away
under Hunter’s feet. As each company had been
called up to receive its pay, the men had piled their
arms to the word of command. But when the word
was given to un-pile, there was an immediate shudder
of hesitation, which seemed to be caught by one
company from another, until it pervaded the whole
regiment. Each man seemed to read what was in
his neighbour’s heart, and without any previous con-
cert, therefore, they clung to each other in their dis-
obedience. Three Grenadier Sepoys took their
muskets, and were promoted on tbe spot; but not
another man followed their example. The regiment
had again become a rabble. Nothing now could
reduce them to order.

Until the blazing June sun was rising high in the
heavens. Hunter and the regimental officers remained
on the parade-ground, vainly endeavouring to per-
suade the Sepoys to return to their duty. They had
only one answer to give — their Colonel and their
Adjutant had promised them what they had not
received. If the General would guarantee them the
old Indus war-allowances, they would serve as good
soldiers ; if not, they wished to he discharged, and
return to their homes. All through the day, and all
through the night, without divesting themselves of
their uniform, without going to their Lines to cook
or to eat, the mutineers remained on the ground,
sauntering about in the neighbourhood of their piled
arms, and discussing their vvrongs.

Day broke, and found them stiU on the ground.
But hunger and fatigue had begun to exhaust the
energies of their resistance, and when Hunter ap-
peared again on the scene, accompanied only by his(

1844.

288

THE SEPOY AEJIY— ITS DECLINE.

18*4. aide-de-camp, and beat to arms, the men fell in, took
their muskets, and evinced some signs of contrition.
Then the General spoke to them, saying that he would
receive at his quarters a man from each company, and
hear what he had to say on the part of his comrades.
Satisfied with this promise, and being no longer irri-
tated by the presence of the officers who had deceived
them, the Sixty-fourth allowed the parade to be
quietly dismissed, and went to their Lines. At the
appointed hour, the delegates from the several regi-
ments waited on the General, and each man told the
same story of the deception that had been practised
upon the regiment. They had been promised “ Ge-
neral Pollock’s Batta,” and the twelve rupees which
they had expected had dwindled down into eight.

With this evidence before him, the General re-
moved Colonel Moseley from the command of the
station and from the command of the regiment,* and
ordered the Sixty-fourth to inarch to Sukkur, on their
way back to our older provinces. It was an anxious
time; a hazardous march. So Hunter went with
them. But the hot stage of the fever had passed, and
the paroxysm seemed to have left them feeble and
Jmip 25, sore-spent. Unresistingly they went to Sukkur, and
1841. encamped in the presence of European troops ; and
(Jeorge Hunter, thanking God that the peril was over,
and that not a drop of blood had been shed, then
took upon himself the responsibility of pardoning
the regiment as a body, and brining to punishment
only the worst of the individual ofienders.f Such
moderation could hardly be misunderstood at a time

* Colonel Moseley was afterwards pital ptmisliment, and the sentence
tried by court-martW, and cashiered, of death passed npon the others was
f Thirty-nine prisoners were sent commuted to imprisonment and hard
fo trial, of whom one only was ac- labour for various terma*
quilted. Six were ordered for ca-

DirnCULTIES OF OOYEENMEKT.

289

yAgii tliere was present power to enforce the decrees
of a sterner justice. So he addressed the regiment
on parade, told them that he pardoned all but the
leading mutineers, who would be tried by Court-
martial ; and he trusted that the mercy thus shown to
them would not be thrown away, that they would
repent of their misconduct and return to their alle-
giance. And perhaps the provocation which they
had received was ample warrant for the leniency of
their treatment.*

But the embarrassments of the Government did not
end here. Whatsoever might be the punishment of
the offence, it could not afford a remedy for the evil.
The mutinous regiments might be disbanded, and
their ringleaders might be hanged by the neck, or
blown to atoms from the guns ; but still there would,
be no answer to the question of how was Scinde to
be garrisoned with British troops ? It had been the
design of the Government to employ only Bengal
regiments on that service, seeking aid in other
quarters from Madras. But the Bengal Army had
broken down under the experiment ; and there was
small hope, after what had passed, of its ever being
induced, except by humiliatmg concessions, to look
that hated province in the face. There were, how-
ever, two other Presidencies, and two other Armies,
not so nice as Bengal; and the defence of Scinde
might be entrusted to Bombay or Madras regiments.
If such had been the design in the first instance, it
might, under judicious management, have been sue-

♦ There is something very touch- the circumstances. “ I never could
ing in the humility which pervades write,” he says at the end of one
the letters written at this time by letter, “and old age does not irn-
(Jc*>rxe Hunter to Lord EUenborough prove a man in any way, except, I
and Sir Charles Napier. He asks to trust, in seeing his own failings and
be pardoned for all short-comings, praying for mercy/*
in consideration of the difficulty of

1S44*.

290

THE SEPOT AKlir— ITS DECLINE.

1843. cessfully carried into effect. But after such an ex
ample as had been set by the Bengal regiments, there
was small consolation to be drawn from the prospect
of loyal service to be rendered by their comrades.
Already, indeed, were there signs that the disposition
to strike for higher pay which had manifested itself
among the Bengal troops was not confined to the
Sepoys of that “ pampered and petted” Army. The
Bombay regiments were untainted ;* but a mutinous
spirit had again displayed itself among the native
soldiery of the Coast Army.f

Mutiny of (he The first symptom of this was in a Cavalry re-
giment at Jubbulpore. Among tlie results of an
extension of empire without a corresponding aug-
mentation of our military force, are frequent viola-
tions of old Presidential limits in the location of our
troops, which, however unobjectionable they may
appear at the Adjutant-General’s office, are seldom
cax’i’ied out without some disturbance of our military
system. It might seem to bo of small consequence
whether the station at which a regiment was posted
were within the limits of one Presidency or another ;
but if a Madras regiment were called upon to serve
in the Bengal Presidency, or a Bombay regiment in
Madras, or any other departm-e from ordinary rule
were decreed, the Government -was fortunate if it
were not seriously perplexed and embarrassed by the
results. Now, the Madras Army, though, as has been

• The Bombay Army was said at Infantry had mutinied at Asseeglmr
that time to have more duty on its and Malleganm ; there had ten a
hands than it could perform without mutiny of the Madras troops at Se-
a severe stite, and the Bombay 6o- cunderabad ; and the 2nd and 41st
vernraent were olamourinfr for an Regiments had shown a bad spirit,
augmentation. when ordered to embark for Cnina.

t There had been several recent The Srd and 4th Native Cavalry
instances of extreme iastthordination, regiments had also mutinied; the
amounting, indeed, to mutiny, in the former in 1888, the latter in 1842.
Madias Army. The S2ud Native

MUTINT OF THE MADRAS TROOPS. 291

said, more cosmopolitan and less nice than that of
Bengal, and not deterred by caste prejudices from
proceeding to strange places, sufFered even more than
the Bengal troops from being ordered to distant
stations, because the family of the Madras soldier fol-
lowed his regiment, whilst the belongings of his
Bengal comrade remained in their native village.
The removal of the family from one station to an-
other was a sore trouble and a heavy expense to the
Madras Sepoy ; and whatever increased the distance
to be traversed was, therefore, a grievance to him.

To the Cavalry it was especially a grievance, for
the troopers were principally well-born Mahomedans,
and the rigid seclusion in %vhich their 'women were
kept greatly increased the cost of their conveyance
from one station to another. The Sixth Cavalry had
been more than commonly harassed in this respect,
when, towards the close of 1843, just as they were
expecting to get their route for the favourite cavalry
station of Arcot, they received orders to march from
Kamptee to Jubbulpore, in the valley of the Ner-
budda, which, in consequence of the demand for
Bengal troops on the Indus, it had been necessary to
occupy with regiments from Madras. The sharp dis-
appointment, however, was in some measure miti-
gated by the assurance that the service on which
they were required was but temporary, and that they
would soon return -within the proper limits of their
o-^vn Presidency. They went, therefore, lea-ving their
families behind them ; but when they reached Jub-
bulpore, they found that they were to be permanently
located there upon lower allowances than they had
expected, that they must send for their families from
Kamptee, and that their next march would be nine
hundred moles southward to Arcot.

tJ 2

im.

292

THE SEPOY AE5IY— ITS DECLINE.

1843. Only by savings from tbeir pay at the higher rates
could the troopers hope to defray these extraordi-
nary expenses. On the lower rates of pay it was
impossible; for the greater part of their earnings
was remitted for the support of their absent fanoilies,
and what remained was barely enough to keep toge-
ther body and soul. When, therefore, they found
that they were to receive these lower rates at Jubhul-
pore, they broke into open manifestations of discon-
tent, and bound themselves by oaths to stand by each
other whilst they resisted the unjust decree. The
tirst few days of December were, therefore, days of
sore vexation and disturbance to the officers of the
Sixth, and most of aU to the Commandant, Major
Major ntcli- Litchfield, to whose want of personal sjunpathy with
their sufferings the Sepoys, reasonably or unreason-
ably, attributed a great part of their affliction. The
conduct of the men was violent and outrageous.
They were with difficulty induced to saddle and
mount for exercise ; and when the trumpet sounded
for the canter, they loosened rein, urged their horses
forward at a dangerous pace, and raising the religious
war-cry of “ Been ! deen !” broke into tumultuous
disorder. Brought back to something like discipline,
the regiment was dismissed ; but throughout the day
the greatest excitement prevailed among them, and a
large body of troopers marched in a defiant manner
Capt. BjBg. through the Lines to the tent of a favourite officer,
declaring that they would obey his orders, and serve
under him, and beseeching him to place himself at
their head. On the following day the excitement
had increased. The troop-officers went among their
men, endeavouring to padfy them. But they could
report nothing more satisfactory than that the
troopers were in a frantic state, and that if Litchfield

ircTKY AT JUBBULPOUE.

293

ventured on parade next morning the result would
be fatal to him.

Undeterred by this, the Major would have held the
parade, but the Brigadier commanding the station,
to whom, in due course, all the circumstances were
reported, caused it to be countermanded, and an
Inspection Parade, under his own command, ordei’ed
in its stead. To this the regiment sullenly responded ;
and when the Brigadier addressed them, saying that
he was willing to hear their complaints, many of the
men stepped forward and presented him with peti-
tions, which were given over to the troop-officers, to
be forwarded to him through the regular official
channels. But, although it was plain that there was
a bitter feeling of resentment against Litchfield, no
act of violence was committed at that parade. And
it happened that before its dismissal a letter reached
the Brigadier announcing that the higher allowances
were to be given to the men ; and so the active danger
was passed. But the disturbance which had been
engendered did not soon pass away; the Sepoys
remained sullen and discontented, and for some days
it appeared to the Brigadier not improbable that he
would be compelled to call the Infantry and the
Artillery to his assistance. But the Madras Army was
spared this calamity of bloodshed ; and after a little
while the re^ment returned to the quiet and orderly
performance of its duty.

As the old year closed upon the scene of mutiny in i843-4i,
the Madras Cavalry, so, very soon, the new year opened
upon a kindred incident in the Madras Infantry. When
it was found that the Bengal troops were reluctant to
serve, under the proposed terms, in the Scinde pro-
vince, and serious embarrassment was, thereby, likely
to be occasioned to the Supreme Government, the

294

THE SEPOY AEMT— ITS DECLINE.

184 S 44 . Madras autliorities, believing that the crisis was one
in which it behoved every one to do his best, promptly
and vigoi’ously, for the salvation of the State, deter-
mined, on a requisition from the Government of
Bombay, to send two infantry regiments to Scinde.*
The Sepoys were to embark on board transport vessels
at Madras, to touch at Bombay, and thence to proceed
to Kurrachee. One of these re^ments, the Forty-
seventh, was in orders for Moulmein, on the eastern
coast of the Bay of Bengal — a station at which, being
beyond Presidential limits, extra allowances, known
as field-batta and rations, were paid to the troops.
Ignorant, it would appear, of the Bengal regulations,
the Madras Government, represented by the Marquis
of Tweedale, who held the double office of Governor
and Commander-in-Chief, guaranteed to the regiments
ordered to Scinde the allowances received at Moul-
mein ; and under these conditions the Forty-seventh
embarked for Bombay.

MaSiFort*^ Meanwhile, the Supreme Government had been

sevcntL ’ ^ advised of the unauthorised measures of the Madras
authorities. Chafing under such usurpation of the
powers and prerogatives of the Governor-General,
Ellenborough sent orders for the detention of the
Madras regiment at Bombay, and it was disembarked
on its arrivaLf There the Madras Sepoys learnt that
the advantages of foreign service, promised to them at
Madras, and on the faith of which they had set their
faces towards Scinde, were disallowed. The greater
part of their pay up to the end of March had already

• ■ Sir Charles Napier had made aa he stated that one detachment of
urgent call ou Bcmfmy, which, Bom- the r^ment tnutiuied on board the
bay not being able to comply with it, John Mm transport ycssbI ; but the
imssed on to Madras. discontent then manifested arose

t lateliigenoo of tte change of from drcumstancos unconnected
destination was communicated to the with the after -causes of disaflec-
ofScers during the voyage. It tion.

MUTIXI OF THE JIADEAS FOETY-SEYEXTH.

295

been disbursed to tbem, for tbe benefit of the families
whom they left behind, and now they found, in the
middle of February, that the scanty residue, on which
they had relied for their own support, was by these
retrenchments taken from them, and that, far away
from their homes, starvation stared them in the face.
It was not strange that they should have regarded
this as a cruel breach of faith ; and that they should
have resented it. They had been promised rations,
and they asked for them, and when they found they
were not likely to be supplied, they manifested their
discontent, after the wonted fashion, by breaking out
on parade. When the word of command was given for
them to march to their Lines, by fours from the left,
they stood fast. The word was repeated, but still
they stood fast ; and when the Adjutant rode up to
the leading section and asked the men if they had not
heard the word of command, they answered sullenly
that they had heard it ; and when a. Native officer
asked them why they did not move, they told him
that they wanted food, and that they would not stir
without it.

When the order to advance was again given, the
regiment moved off; but only to renew on the fol-
lowing morning the exhibition of disobedience and
discontent. Paraded before the General commanding
the garrison, the regiment soon evinced signs of being
in the same mood. After inspection, when the order
was given to march by companies to their respective
Lines, the Grenadiers stepped off, but presently wavered
and halted ; and when their captain, having ordered
their arms, went off to report their conduct to the
commanding officer, they insisted on following him in
a body, declaring that if they then lost their chance
of representing their hard case to the General, thej

1843-44.

Peb. 19.
1844.

296

THE SEPOT ARirr — ^ITS DECLINE.

1844. might never find it again. Another company was
even more violent in its demands. When the word of
command was given to advance at the quick march,
a man from the ranks cried out, “ Eight about face,”
and the whole company stood fast, as did other parts
of the column. Taken in the act of flagrant mutiny,
the Sepoy was disarmed, and sent to the gu^rd,
whither the greater part of the company followed,
declaring that they also would go to the guard, that
they wanted rice, and must have it.

After a while order was restored. The General
addressed the European and Native officers, and told
them to assure the men, that any complaints advanced
in a soldierly manner would he inquired into and any
grievances redressed, but that such conduct as had
been displayed on parade could not be overlooked. The
regiment was then moved off to its Lines, some of the
ringleaders being carried off as prisoners ; and an ad-
vance of money, at first reluctantly received, stifled
the further progress of mutiny. Here, then, the story
may end. The Madras Army was not destined to
supply the want accruing from the defective loyalty
of Bengal. It broke down at a critical time ; but
only under such a weight of mismanagement as might
have crushed out the fidelity of the best mercenaries
in the world.

In these, as in instances above cited, byjonfficts of
authority and variations of system, the Sepoy was
not unreasonably alarmed for the integrity of his pay ;
and although we may condemn the manner in which
he manifested his discontent, we must not think too
harshly of the tenacity with which he asserted his
rights. If an English soldier strikes for more pay, it is
in most cases only another name for more drink He
seeks it, too often, as a means of personal indulgence.

DISBANDMENT.

297

There is nothing to render less greedy his greed. But 1814<
the avarice of the Sepoy was purified by domestic
affection, by a tender regard for the interests of others,
and that strong feeling of family honour which in
India renders Poor Laws an useless institution. He
had so many dependents with whom to divide his
slender earnings, that any unexpected diminution of
his pay excited alarm lest those who were nearest and
dearest to him should in his absence be reduced to
want. The honour of his family was threatened;
he chafed under the thought; and if he took un-
soldierly means of asserting his rights, we must re-
member the provocation, and not forget those pecu-
liarities of national sentiment which lighten the dark
colours in which aU such resistance of authority pre-
sents itself to European eyes.

Eventually Bombay troops were sent to garrison Penal irea
Scinde, and the province became a part of the Bombay
Presidency. But it is hard to say how much these
first abortive attempts to provide for its defence shook
the discipline of the Sepoy Army. For the evil was
one to which it was difficult to apply a remedy ; and
the authorities were greatly perplexed and at variance
one with another. The ^bandment of a mutinous
regiment is, in such a case, the most obvious, as it is
the easiest measure, to which Government can resort ;
but it may often be unjust in itself and dangerous in
its results. It falls alike on the innocent and on the
guilty. It fills the country with the materials of
which rebellions are made, or sends hundreds of our
best fighting-men, Tvith aU the lessons we have taught
them, into the enemy’s ranks. To be effective, it
should follow closely on the commission of the crime
which it is intended to punish ; but it can rarely be
accomplished with this essential promptitude, for it is

298

THE SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLINE.

1841. only under certain favouring circumstances that an
order to reduce to penury and disgrace a thousand
trained soldiers can be carried out with safety to the
State. To delay the execution of the punishment is
outwardly to condone the offence. It was not strange,
therefore, that when the Thirty-fourth Infantry and
the Seventh Cavalry of Bengal mutinied on the
frontier, almost in the presence of the Sikh Army,
there should have been obstinate questionings at Head-
Quarters as to the expediency of disbandment on the
spot, or at some safer place remote from the scene of
their crimes. It was the opinion of Lord EUen-
borough, at the time, that a regiment of Europeans
and a troop of European artillery should have been
summoned with ah haste from Loodhianah to Feroze-
pore, and that, in presence of this force, the mutinous
corps should have been at once disbanded. But a
reference, it has been said, %vas made to Government,
and the mutinous regiments were marched down,
unsentenced, to Loodhianah and Meerut, there to
await the decision of supreme authority. The orders
given left some discretion \vith the Commander-in-
Chief. The Seventh Cavalry had not mutinied in a
body. Tlie Native officers and nearly two hundred
troopers were true to their Salt. Discipline might,
therefore, be vindicated by ordinary processes of law
without involving the innocent and the guilty alike
in one co m mon ruin. But the Thirty-fourth, Native
officers and Sepoys, were all tainted ; so, with every
mark of infamy, in the presence of all the troops,
European and Native, at Meerut, the regiment was
broken up, the British uniform was stripped from the
backs of the mutineers, and the number of the regi-
ment was erased from the Army list.*

♦ Two or three years afterwards of a new regimen^ in no degree
the gap was filled up by the msing better than the old.

DISBANDMENT.

299

Propinquity to an overawing European force re-
moves the chief difficulties which oppose themselves
to the sudden dissolution of a Native regiment. But
under no other circumstances is it to be counselled.
The question of disbandment, therefore, perplexed the
Madras authorities even more than those of Bengal.
To march a regiment, with arms in its hands, some
hundreds of miles across the country, to receive its
services, and perhaps to witness its repentance during
a period of many weeks, all that time concealing the
fate that is in store for it, and then having caged it m
a safe place, pinioned it, as it were, beyond aU hope
of resistance, to visit it with all the terrors of a long-
hidden, long-delayed retribution, is altogether ab-
horrent to the generous nature of an English officer.
To have disbanded, for example, the Sixth Madras
Cavalry at Jubbulpore would have been cruel and
dangerous. To have marched it to Arcot in igno-
rance of its fate, would have been cruel and dastardly.
To have broken it up at Kamptee would have been
to incur, only in a less degree, the evil of both
courses. And nothing else appeared possible; for
it was not to be supposed that all those indignant
Mahomedans, men with whom revenge is a virtue,
would have quietly gone down, mounted on good
horses, and with sharpened sabres at their sides, in
fuU knowledge of their destiny, to the disgraceful
punishment awaiting them. With these considera-
tions before them, it was not strange that the Madras
authorities hesitated to carry out the comprehensive
penalty of disbandment, and that, as a choice of dif-
ficulties, it should have suffered many guilty men to
escape.

In this instance. Lord EHenborough was eager for
disbandment. He said that the conduct of the regi-
ment had been equally bad in itself and pernicious ini

184k

300

THE SEPOY ARMY— ITS DECLIXE,

1844. its results, for that the disturbed state of Bundelkund
rendered it little short of mutiny before the enemy,
and it had disconcerted aU the arrangements of his
Government for the general defence of the country.
But it was not his, either on principle or in practice,
to deal harshly with the errors and delusions of the
Native Army, and there were few men living who
had a more kindly appreciation of the good qualities
of the Sepoy, or who could more readily sjunpathise
with him. If he did not know precisely how to deal
with a mutiny of that Army ; if he could not, with
accurate calculation of the results, so apportion the
just measures of leniency and severity as in no case to
encourage by the one or to exasperate by the other,
he only failed where no one had yet succeeded, and
need not have blushed to find himself mortal. He
often said that a general mutiny of the Native Army
was the only real danger with which our empire in
India was threatened ; and he believed that the surest
means of maintaining the fidelity of the Sepoy was by
continually feeding his passion for military glory. In
this he was right. But the passion for military glory
cannot always be fed without injustice, and the evils
of conquest may be greater than its gains. He had
much faith, too, in the good effect of stirring ad-
dresses, appealing to the imaginations of the soldiery,
and in the application of donatives promptly follow-
ing good service. And, although in working out his
theory he was sometimes impelled to practical ex-
prestions of it, which caused people to smile, as in
the femous Somnauth Proclamation, and in the dis-
$wectiiieats. tribution of the “favourite meUoys" to the Sepoys
after the battle of Maharajpore, there was, doubtless,
sound philosophy at the bottom of it. But such light
as this only served to show more clearly the many

DIFFICULTIES OF GOTERNMENT.

301

and great difficulties with Avhich the whole question 1S44.
of the Sepoy Army was beset, and to convince re-
flecting minds that, though human folly might ac-
celerate the break-down of the whole system, human
wisdom could not so fence it around with safeguards
as to give it permanent vitality and strength.

That the treatment to which the mutinies arising
out of the annexation of Scinde were subjected by the
Government of the day was nothing more than a
series of expedients is a fact, but one which may be
recorded without censure. The disbandment of one
regiment, the punishment of a few ringleaders in
others, the forgiveness of the rest ; the dismissal of an
officer or two for culpable mismanagement, and a
liberal issue of donatives to all who during the pre-
ceding year had either done well, or suffered much, in
the service of the State, were so many palliatives, bom
of the moment, which did not touch the seat of the
disease, or contribute to the future healthy action of
the system. But there were circumstances, both
intrinsic and extrinsic, which seemed to forbid, on
grounds alike of justice and of policy, the application
of more vigorous remedies. The fact, indeed, that
the misconduct of the soldiery had, in a great measure,
been the direct growth of the injuries which they had
sustained at the hands of the Government, would
have made severity a crime. But it was no less cer-
tain that leniency was a blunder. If an Army once
finds that it can dictate to Government the amount
of its pay, there is an end to the controlling power of
the latter. "What the State ought to have learnt from
this lesson was the paramount obligation which rested
upon it of clearly explaining to its troops aU regula-
tions affecting their pay and allowances, and espe-
cially such as entailed upon them any loss of privileges i

302 THE SEPOY AEMT— ITS DECLINE.

184-1 antecedently enjoyed. Under any circumstances a
reduction of pay is a delicate and hazardous opera-
tion. Even the loyalty of European officers is not
always proof against such a trial. But the absence of
explanation aggravates it, in the Sepoy’s eyes, into a
breach of faith ; he believes that he is only asserting
his rights when he strikes for the restoration of that
of which he has been, in his own eyes unjustly, de-
prived j and the Government then, perplexed in the
extreme, has only a choice of evilfi before it, and either
on the side of leniency or severity is too likely to go
lamentably wrong.

THE SIKH TTAE.

303

CHAPTER IV.

mB WAS ON THE SUTLEJ— THE PATNA CONSPIBACT — ATTEMPT TO COH
EUPT THE SEPOYS AT DINAPOHE— THE OCCUPAIION OP THE PUNJau —
ANNEXATION AND ITS EPPECTS — ^BEDUCTION OP THE SEPOY’s PAY— THE
MUTINIES AT HAWUL PINDEE AND GOYINDGHUR— LORD DALHOUSIE AND
SIB. CHARLES NAPIER.

It was fortunate, perhaps, for the rulers of that day 1.S45.
that Peace was but of short duration, and that the
“ passion for military glory” had again something to
feed upon. The Sikh Army, having risen against its
own leaders, was vapouring on the banks of the Sutlej,
and threatening to cross the British frontier. No
war could have been more welcome to the Sepoy than
a war with the Sikhs. For they were an insolent and
minacious race, and it was known that they had
talked of overrunning Hindostan, and pouring on to
the sack of Delhi and the pillage of Calcutta. They
took the first step, and the war commenced.

Whilst the Governor-General and the Commander- The Patna
in-Chief were at the head of the Army on the frontier,
and all eyes were turned towards the scene of that
sanguinary conflict on the Sutlej, lower down, on the
banks of the Ganges, four hundred miles from Cal-
cutta, an incident w'as occurring, which, in quiet
times, might have made itself heard aU over the
country, but which, lost in the din of battle in that

304

THE SEPOr AEMT— ITS DECLINE.

iS:te-4i6. momentous Tvinter, gave only a local sound. Dis
covery "was made of an organised attempt to corrupt
tlie soldiery in the Lower Provinces. On Christmas
eve the magistrate of Patna received a letter from
Major Rowcroft, informing him that the Moonshee
of his regiment — the First Native Infantry — was in
treasonable correspondence with a rich and influ-
ential landholder in the neighbourhood, who had
been tampering with the allegiance of the Native
officers and Sepoys in the contiguous station of
Linapore.

Of the truth of the story there was no doubt. To
what dimensions the conspiracy really extended, and
from what central point it radiated, is not known,
and now never will be known. It was a season of
considerable popular excitement, aggravated in the
neighbourhood of Patna by local causes, and eager
efforts had been made to prepare the people for
revolt. Reports had been for some time current to
the effect that the British Government purposed to
destroy the caste of the Hindoos, and to abolish
Mahomedanisra by forbidding the initial ceremony
through which admission is obtained to the number
of the Faithful. And to this was added another lie,
scarcely less alarming, that the Purdah was also to
be prohibited, and that Mahomedan females of all
ranks were to be compelled to go about unveiled.
Stories of this kind, it has been observed, however
monstrous in themselves, are readily believed, if
there be but only a very little truth to give them
currency. The truth may be from within or it may
he from without. It may be direct proof or indirect
confirmation. It little matters so long as there is
something which men may see and judge for them-
selves. There had been many exciting causes at this

EXCITEMENT AT PATNA.

305

time, to rouse tlie resentments and to stimulate the 1845-46
activities of tlie Moulavees and the Pundits, such as
the new law of inheritance and the new educational
measures ; and now the introduction of the messing-
system into the gaols was a patent fact which all
might understand. It was an incident, moreover, of
untoward occurrence, that about this time, when de-
signing men were eagerly looking out for some false
move on the part of the Government, the Magistrate
of Patna, at the request of the Principal of the
College, alarmed the inhabitants of the city by insti-
tuting inquiries enabling him to form something of
a census of the population, showing their different
castes, professions, and emplojonents — a movement
which was at once declared to be a part of the great
scheme of the Government for the forcible conversion
of the people.

But it was necessary that the soldiery should be
gained over by some alarming fiction of especial ap-
plication to the Sepoy himself. Already had indirect
agency been set at work for his corruption. He
found the lie in full leaf in his native village. When
he went on furlough, his relatives told him that if he
did not make a stand for his reli^on he would soon
have to fight against his brethren and kinsmen.*

When he returned to his regiment he found that
every one was talking on the same subject, and that
it was currently believed that the introduction of the
messing-system into the gaols was to be followed by
its introduction into the Army, and that the Sepoy
was not much longer to be allowed to have uncon-
trolled dominion over his own cooking-pot.

* Some of tlie men of the "First but if you will not listen tans, we
Regiment told Major Rowcroft that will send 2000 juwans (young wn)
the villagers had said, “ Our village to oppose you.’^ ' ' '

furnishes 600 men to your Army;

THE SEPOY AEMY — ITS DECLINE.

ao6

lSi5-46. If, then, there had been nothing more than this,
the time •would have been propitious, and plotters
might reasonably have thought that the opportunity
was ripe. But in that winter of 1845-46 a seditious
enterprise of this kind in the Lower Provinces was
favoured by the circumstances of the great war with
the Sikhs, which was drawing all the resources of the
Government to the North-Western frontier. There
was a vague belief that lakhs of Punjabee fighting-
men would soon be streaming over the country', and
that the English would be driven into the sea. Many,
then, with eager cupidity, bethought themselves of
gutting the opium godowns of Patna, where a million
and a half of Government property lay stored ; and
aU the dangerous classes of the city v/ere ripe and
ready for pillage and for slaughter. A rising of the
Sepoys at such a time, or their acquiescence in a
rising of the people, might have been fatal to the
continued supremacy of Government in that part of
the countr)'. The plotters scarcely hoped to accom-
plish more than the latter of these two means of
overthrowing the English. At all events, it was safer
to begin with the milder experiment on the fidelity
of the Sepoy. So delegates went about in the Lines
saying that the great King of Delhi had sent a con-
fidential agent to give a month’s pay to every Native
officer and soldier in the regiments in order that if
any outbreak should occur in their part of the coun-
try they should not lift a hand in support of the
Government All the landholders, and the culti-
vators, and the townspeople were ready, it was said,
to rise; and if the soldiery would only remain in-
active, the British power might be destroyed before it
could perpetrate the outrages by which it sought to
overturn the reli^ons of the country.

CONSPIKACT DETECTED.

807

A Jemadar of the First Re^ment heard this story,
gravely listened to all that vras urged by the emissary
of sedition, and said that he would consider of the
matter.* Then he repeated all that had happened
to his commanding officer, and measures were soon
taken to test the reality of the plot. There was at
all events one substantial proof that the story was no
fiction. There was money counted out for the work of
corruption, and tied up in bags ready for immediate
delivery. It was agreed that the J emadar and another
officer in Rowcroft’s confidence should take the
money, and matters were soon conveniently arranged
so as to bring about the disclosure. A detachment
of the regiment was about to proceed to Gya; with
this went the two faithful Jemadars. On the way
they met or were overtaken by two well-dressed
Mahomedans in an ecka, or native wheeled-carriage,
who gave them the money, saying that others had
taken it, and that larger supplies were forthcoming
for the same purpose. Nothing could stamp the
reality of the design more surely than this. Men are
in earnest when they part with their money.

Another Native officer of the First traitorously
took the corrupting coin, and a Moonshee of the
regiment was found to be deeply implicated in the
plot. But Rowcroft’s opportune discovery of the
attempt to debauch his men, and the measures which
he ^visely adopted, rendered the further elForts of the
conspirators utterly futile and hopeless. The military
offenders were soon in confinement ; the civil ma-
gistrate w'as tracking down the instigators of sedi-
tion ; and if no great success then attended the attempt

♦ The Jemadar was a Brahmin, the latter was adjutant of the regi-
by name Mootee-Missur. He had roent, and was greatly attached to
pay-haviidar to Eoweroft, when him.

X 2

13i5-48

308

TEE SEPOY ASMY — ^ITS BECUNE

18454G. to bring tbe necks of tbe most guilty to tbe gallows,
it was sufficient for the public peace that the plot was
discovered. What the amount of real danger then
was it is difficult to determine. Two other Native
regiments at Dinapore were tampered with in like
manner, but the discovery of the plot in Rowcroft’s
corps rendered other efforts abortive. Many great
names were used by the agents of sedition, but upon
what authority can only be conjectured. It was
stated that a royal mandate had come from the King
of Delhi ; that the Rajah of Nepaul was ready to
send a great army sweeping down to the plains ; and
again it was said that the Sikhs were the prime
movers of the plot.* All this can be only obscurely
shadowed on the page of history. But it is certain
that a scroll was found, described by a witness as
being many cubits long, on which the names of some
hundred of respectable inhabitants of Patna, Hindoos
and Mahomedans, were attached to a solemn decla-
ration binding them to die in defence of their reli-
gion, and that it was honestly believed by large
numbers of the educated no less than the ignorant
people of that part of the country, that the one
cherished object of the British Government was to
reduce all the people of India to the no-caste state of
the Peringhees. Of the reality of this belief there
was no doubt ; so a Proclamation was put forth by
the Governor of Bengal, declaring that as the Bri-
tish Government never had interfered, so the people

* Tile principal actor in the Patna
consmracy was one Khojah Hassan
All Xhan» It seems that at tlie
Sonepore Pair, a short time before,
he had appeared in great state, and
received a considerable number of
influential people in bis tent, with
the object of instilling into them a

fear of religious conversion, and en-
couraging their determination to re-
sist. He escaped for want of evi-
dence, There was also a wandering
bookseller, who, on the plea of selt-
ingPersian volumes to the Mooasheei
of regiments, readily gained access
to them without exciting suspicion.

CONQUEST OF TUE PUNJAB.

SOD

miglit be assured that it never would interfere in any
way with tbe religions of tlie country.

The Jemadar and the Moonshee of the First Regi-
ment, who had been seduced into traitorous courses,
were tried by court-martial, and sentenced to death,
with the usual reluctance manifested by a tribunal
composed only of Native oflScers.* But it was not
necessary to strike terror into the minds of an army
hovering on the brink of general mutiny ; so the sen-
tence was not carried out. "Whatever danger there
may have been had passed away.f The victories of
Hardinge and Gough had a grand moral effect from
one end of the country to the other, for it had been
believed that the British were sore pressed, and that
their power would be shaken to the centre by this
collision with the Sikhs. "Victory made all things
right again, and for a while we heard nothing more
of mutiny or sedition. With intervals of comparative
repose, distinguished by an occupation of the Sikh
country, very flattering to the Sepoy’s pride, and veiy
profitable to his purse, the operations which resulted
in the fall of the Sikh empire then lasted for moi’e
than three years. The story has been told in the first
chapter of this work. The Punjab, like Scinde, was
turned by a stroke of the pen into a British province,
and the same difficulties bristled up in the path of

* Not long after the discovery of f It is stated in an interestini^
this plot. Major Howcroft was seized pamplUet, published by Mr. Stocque-
witli severe illness, not without sus- ler, in 1857, that it was said at Dma-
picion of poison, and obliged to pro- pore, after the discovery of this con-
ceed to England. Jemadar Mootee- spiracy, that although theEnglish had
Missur told liim that on his return to then escaped, there would be, in 1857,
India, he would, doubtless, be able to when they had ruled a hundred years,
lay before the Major further facts il- such a tomasha as the country had
lustrativeof the extent of the conspi- never seen. I can tind no trace of
racy. But when Howcroft rejoined this in any contemporary documents,
the regiment both Mootee-Missur nor have my inquiries from officers
and the other faithful Jemadar were who were then at Binapore enabled
dead. me to confirm the trnth of the stoiy.

1S4545.

310

THE SEPOY Usm — ^ITS DECLINE.

I8i5-i(5. the Annexer. The Sepoy, called to serve in the
Punjab, had no longer the privileges of foreign ser-
vice ; and, in spite of the lesson taught by the Scinde
annexation, he could not understand why the con-
quest of the country should be inaugurated by the
reduction of his pay.

Mutiny in ihc And SO the regiments in the Punjab at that time,

^'*1849 50 which were moved across the Sutlej from

our older provinces, determined to refuse the reduced
rates, and to stand out boldly for the higher allow-
ances. All the regiments, suifering or soon to sulFer
from the incidence of the reduction, took counsel with
each other, and promised mutual support. Delegates
from the several corps went about from station to
station, and letters were exchanged between those at
a distance. The first manifestation of open discontent
was at Rawul Pindee. There, one morning in July,
Sir Colin Campbell, a soldier of the highest promise,
already budding into fame — ^the “ war-bred Sir Colin,”
as Napier then called him — received the significant

July, 1819. intelligence that the Twenty-second Regiment had re-
fused to receive their pay. Outwardly, the Sepoys
were calm and respectful; but their calmness indi-
cated a sense of strength, and Campbell felt that aH
the other Native regiments in the Punjab would pro-
bably follow their example. Such a combination at
any time and in any place would have been dan-
gerous and alarming ; but the peril was greatly aggra-
vated by the peculiar circumstances of the times. For
it had grown up in a newly-conquered country,
swarmbg with the disbanded fighting-men of the old
Sikh Army, and it was believed that our discontented
Sepoys, if they had once broken into rebellion, would
have soon found thmr ranks swollen by recruits from
the Kalsa soldieiy, eager to profit by the crisis, and

MUTINY IN THE PUNJAB.

311

again to strike for tke recovery of their lost dominion. 1849
We had just seen the downfal of an empire precipi-
tated by the lawlessness of an army, driven onward
by the impulses of its greed ; and now it seemed as
though our own soldiery, having caught the con-
tagion, were clamouring for donatives, and that it re-
quired very careful steering to save us from being
■wrecked upon the same rock.

Sir Charles Napier had, at that time, just appeared
upon the stage. He had hastened from Calcutta to
Simlah to meet the Governor-General, who -sYas re-
freshing himself with the cool mountain air; and
there the news reached him, not that one, but that
two regiments at Rawul Pindee had refused to take
their pay, and that there was every prospect of four
more regiments at Wuzeerabad, and two at the inter-
mediate station of Jhelum, following their example.

Then Dalhousie and Napier took counsel together,
with some of their staff-officers, and it was debated
whether it would not be wise to strike a vigorous blow
at the incipient mutiny by disbanding the regiments
which had already refused to accept their pay. To
this course, proposed by Colonel Benson, an old officer
of the Company’s service, held in deserved regard by
many successive Governors-General, Napier resolutely
objected, and Dalhousie concurred with the Chief.
Hoping for the best, but still prepared for the worst,
the old soldier instructed Campbell to point out to the
recusant re^bments the foUy and wickedness of their
course ; but he -wrote privately to him that in the
event of their obduracy, he and other com-manding
officers must bring the power of the European regi-
ments in the Punjab to bear upon the coercion of the
mutinous Sepoys. But before these letters arrived,
Campbell had tided over •the difficulty. “The com-

312

niE''SEPOY ARMY — ITS DECLIXE.

1819. bination amongst tbe men of the Thirteenth and
Twenty-second Regiments,” he mote to Napier, on
the 26th of July, “ gave way to fear on the 18th, the
day before your prescription for bringing them to
their senses was despatched from Simlah.” The fact
is that, at that time, they were not ready ; they were
not strong enough for the resistance of authority ;
and they were not prepared to be the protomartyrs in
such a cause. There was a European regiment at
Rawul Pindee ; there were European regiments at
other stations not far removed ; and so it was held to
be a wiser course to wait until the new regiments
should ariive from the older provinces and unite with
them in the dangerous work of military rebellion.

That these regiments were prepared to resist was
soon too apparent. From Simlah, Napier proceeded
on a tour of inspection to the principal military
stations in the Northern Provinces of India ; and at
Delhi he found unmistakable signs of a confederation
of many regiments determined not to serve in the
Punjab except on the higher pay. One regiment
there, warned for seiwice beyond the Sutlej, declared
its intention not to march ; but it was conciliated by
a liberal grant of furloughs, which had before been
withheld ; and it went on to its destination. Napier
believed that the spirit of disaffection was wide-spread.
He had heard ominous reports of twenty-four regi-
ments prepared to stiike, and when he entered the
Punjab, he was not surprised to find that mutiny was
there only in a state of suspended activity, and that
at any moment it might burst out, all the more
furiously for this temporary suppression.

At Wuzeerabad it soon openly manifested itself. In
command of that station was one of the best soldiers
of the Company’s service. At an early age John

COLONEL HEAESET.

313

Hearsey tad earned a name in History, as one of the
heroes of Seetahuldee, and thirty years of subsequent
service had thoroughly ripened his experience, so that
at this time he had perhaps as large a knowledge of
the Sepoy, of his temper, of his habits, of his language,
as any ofS.cer in the Native Army. With this large
knowledge dwelt also in him a large sympathy. It
commonly happened in those days that the man who
best knew the Sepoy best loved him ; and Hearsey,
who had seen how good a soldier he could be, before
the enemy, respected his good qualities, and looked
leniently on his bad. He believed that, with good
management, a Sepoy regiment might be kept, under
almost any circumstances, in the right temper, and he
had great faith in the magic efficacy of a good speech.
When, therefore, one of the regiments at Wuzeerabad
openly refused its pay, Hearsey drew up the men on
parade, and addressed them in language so touching,
so forcible, and so much to the point, that many hung
down their heads, ashamed of what they had done,
and some even shed tears of penitence. The pay was
then offered to them again. The first four men who
refused were tried at once, and sentenced to imprison-
ment with hard labour. The whole brigade was then
turned out to see the sentence carried into effect.
There were four Native re^ments at Wuzeerabad;
but there was also a Kegiraent of the Line and de-
tachments of European Artillery, Horse and Foot. In
the presence of this force, the convicted Sepoys were
manacled as felons and sent off to work on the roads.
After this, there were no more refusals ; the men took
their pay and did their work.

But discipline had not yet been fuUy vindicated.
Three ringleaders, who had been known to go from
company to company, instigating and fomenting re-

1349.

314

THE SEPOT AEMY — ITS DECLIXE

1S4<J. bellion, were tried by court-martial, and sentenced to
fourteen years’ imprisonment. But Napier, who re-
garded in a far stronger light both the enormity of
the offence and the magnitude of the danger, ordered
a revision of the sentence, and death was recorded
against the culprits; and against two others who
w'ere tried for the same offence by the same Court.*
Then justice was satisfied, and mercy might stretch
forth its hand. The sentence was commuted to trans-
Jaauary 25, portation for life. “ In eternal exile,” said Napier, in
1850, his general order to the troops, “ they will expiate
their crimes. For ever separated from their country
and their relations, in a strange land beyond the seas,
they will linger out their miserable lives. It is a
change, but I do not consider it an amelioration of
their punishment. They will remain living examples
of the miserable fate w'hich awaits traitors to their
colours.”

But the spirit of disaffection was not suppressed,
though locallv for a time it was subdued. It was de-
dared that the Post-office runners laboured under
the w'eight of the Sepoj's’ letters, which were then
passing from cantonment to cantonment ; but a large
number of these letters -were seized and examined,
and they were found to contain nothing on the sub-
ject of the allowances, f Napier, however, anticipated
a crisis, and was prepared for it. Taking post at
Peshawur, the extremest corner of our new Punjab
territory, where was a strong European force, he be-
lieved that he would ere long be compelled to sweep
down with the English re^ments, picking up rein-
forcements as he went from station to station, and to

* Bir CEftrles Napier, in Lis In- f Sir Henry Lawrence, in Cal-
dian Misgovemment, says that fonr euita Bmme, voL xxii. The state-
were tried at first, and one after- mrait is made on the authority of
■wards; but the fact is as stated in Major W. Mayne, President of the
the tost, Govindghur Court of Enquiry.

MUTIKT OF THE SIXTY-SIXTH.

315

crusjQ a general rising of the Sepoy troops. And soon 1850 .
it appeared to Hm that the crisis had come. The
Sixty-sixth Regiment broke into mutiny at Govind-
ghur. Bursting out, on parade, Tvith vehement shouts
of disapprobation, they attempted to seize the gates
of the Fort, so as to cut off all communication with
the, loyal troops outside the walls. There was no
European regiment at Govindghur, but the First
Native Cavalry, under Bradford, were faithful among
the faithless, and, aided by the cool courage of Mac-
donald, of the Sixty-sixth, they made good their en-
trance through the gate.* The Fort was saved. The
European officers were saved. And the guilty regi-
ment was doomed to a moral death. The Sixty-sixth
■was struck out of the Army List. The men were dis-
banded in a body, and their colours given to a corps
of Goorkhas, from the hill-tracts of Nepaul, who were
known to be good soldiers, with no Brahminical
daintiness about them, and a general fidelity to their
Salt.

“When the Sixty-sixth was disbanded,” says Sir
Charles Napier, “ the mutiny ceased entirely. Why?

The Brahmins saw that the Goorkhas, another race,
could be brought into the ranks of the Company’s
Army — a race dreaded, as more warlike than their
own. Their religious combination was by that one
stroke rendered abortive.” But, far other causes
than this helped to subdue the spirit of disaffection
which was then I'ipening in the Punjab. The Sepoys
had struck for higher allowances than those which
had been granted to them by the strict letter of the
Regulations; but Napier thought, that however un-
soldierly, however culpable their conduct might be,

* Au opportuEe blow from Mac- statemeut published by Ssir H. Law^
donald’s svpord appears to have rence in Calcutta Review^ vol xxiL
Caused the gate to be opened* See

ISbO.

BaUiousie
and Napier.

S16 THE SEPOY AEIIY— ITS DECLINE.

some grounds of dissatisfaction existed. The change,
•which the Sepoys resented, was declared by the Chief
to he “ impolitic and unjust and, pending a reference
to Government, orders were issued for the payment
of compensation to the troops, on a higher scale than
that sanctioned by the latest regulations.*

Then arose that memorable conflict between Napier
and Dalhousie, which ended in the resignation by the
former of an offi.ee which many had predicted that
he could not long continue to hold. Both were men
of imperious temper, and a collision between them
was, from the first, clearly foreseen. When the Mili-
tary Chief took upon himself to readjust the al-
lowances of the troops in the Punjab, the Civil Go-

♦ Tlie bnre statement in the text
will suffice for the general reader,
but not, perliups, for the professional
one. It may be stated, therefore,
that it had been for many years the
rule of the Indian Government, m hen-
ever the prices of the common arti-
cles of consumption used by the Na-
tive soldicrv exceeded a certain Qxed
price, to grant tliem compensation
proportionate to the additional cost of
supplies. This bounty seems first to
have been bestowed in the year 1821
on the Native troops serving in the
Western Provinces, and was limited
to the single article of ottah, or flour.
Whenever ottah was selling at less
than fifteen seers (or thirty pounds)
the rupee, a proportionate compen-
sation was granted. But, subse-
miently, in 1844!, the application of
this order was extended by Lord
lllenborough, and compensation also
was granted^ to the Native troops
serving in Scinde, when certain minor
articles of consumption were selling
at a high price. In the following
year a new order relative to this
same subject of compensation-money
was issued by Lord Hardinge, who
had by this time succeeded" to the
govemnient. Instead of granting

a separate money-compensation for
each particular high-priced article of
consumption, all tiic several articles
w'ere massed, and some being cheaper
tlian elsewhere, a general average
was struck. It was then officially
announced that thenceforth compen-
sation would be granted to the Se-
poys whenever the price of pio-
visioiis, forming the Native soldier's
diet, should exceed 3 rupees and 8
annas, the aggregate of the rates
for the several articles laid down in
the General Orders of the 26th of
Eebruary, 1844!.” Whenever, in
other words, the Sepoy was unable
to obtain his daily rations at a cost
of 3 rupees 8 annas a month (which
cost was calculated in accordance
with the aggregate fixed rates of
the^ prices of provisions, beyond
which compensation, under the old
regulations, was granted for each
article), the excess was to be de-
frayed ^ by the Government. The
regulation of 1845 was not so favour-
able to the troops as that of 1844,
and Sir Charles Napier, believing
that the application of the former
rule to the troops in the Punjab was a
mistake, directed the regulation of
1844 again to be brought into force.

DALHOUSIE AND NAPIEE.

317

veraor was at sea beyond tbe reach of an official
reference. He returned to find what had been done,
and he resented such an encroachment upon the pre-
rogative of the Government. Napier had justified
the exercise of an authority not constitutionally
belonging to his ojB6,ce, by the assertion that the
danger was pressing, and that action, in such an
ctnergency, did not admit delay. Dalhousie denied
the premises ; he insisted that there had been no
danger. “ I cannot sufficiently express,” he wrote, in
an elaborate Minute on Napier’s proceedings, “the
astonishment with which I read, on the 26th of May,
the intimation then made to the Government by the
Commander-in-Chief, that in the month of January
last a mutinous spirit pervaded the army in the
Punjab, and that insubordination had risen so high
and spread so wide, as to impress his Excellency with
the belief that the Government of the country was
placed at that time in a position of ‘ great peril.’ I
have carefully weighed the statements which his Ex-
cellency has advanced. I have examined anew the
I’ecords that bear on the state of public affairs at that
period, and I have well reflected upon all that has
passed. While I do not seek to question in any way
the sincerity of the convictions by Avhich Sir Charles
Napier has been led to declare that the army was in
mutiny and the empire in danger, I, on my part, am
bound to say that my examination and reflection have
not lessened in any degree the incredulity with which
I first read the statements to which I have referred.”
“There is no justification,” continued his Lordship,
“ for the cry that India was in danger. Free from all
threat of hostilities from without, and secure, through
the submission of its new subjects, from insurrection
within, the safety of India has never for one moment

1850 ,

318

THE SEPOY AKMY -ITS DECLIKE.

1S50, been imperilled by the partial insubordination in tbe
ranks of its army. I have confronted tbe assertions
of the Commander-in-Chief on this head with undis-
puted facts, and with the authority of recorded do-
cuments, and my convictions strengthened by the
information which the Government commands, I
desire to record my entire dissent from the statement
that the army has been in mutiny, and the empire in
danger.”

This was, doubtless, the popular view of the matter ;
and it was readily accepted at the time. What
amount of danger really existed was never known,
and now never will be known. Whatever it may
have been, it was tided over ; and the quietude that
followed this temporary explosion seemed to warrant
the confidence which the Governor-General had ex-
pressed. But Napier held to his opinion with as
much tenacity as Dalhousie. Nothing could shake
the belief of the old soldier that the exceptional course
he had adopted was justified by the exceptional cir-
cumstances of the times. Still he knew the duty of
obedience ; he knew that in a conflict between two
authorities the lower must yield to the higher, and
that he had no right to complain if the latter asserted
the power vested in him by the Law. “ And I do not
complain,” he emphatically added. But, strong in
his conviction of right, and master of himself, though
not of the situation, he felt that he could retire with
dignity from a position which he could not hold with
profit to the State. And he did retire. On the 22nd
of May, he addressed a letter to the Horse-Guards,
requesting that the Duke of Wellington would obtain
her gracious Majesty’s permission for him to resign
the chief command of the Indian Army. “ And the
more so,” he added, “as being now nearly seventy

NAPIER’S RESIGNATION.

319

years of age — during the last ten years of which I
have gone through considerable fatigue of body and
mind, especially during the last year — ^my health
requires that relief from climate and business which
public service in India does not admit.”

But there is no blame, in such a case, to be re-
corded against the Governor-General. When an old
and distinguished soldier — a warrior of high repute,
and a man of consummate ability — deliberately de-
clares that he regards the system under which he has
been called upon to command an army as a system at
once faulty and dangerous ; that he conceives the
power of the civil magistrate to be so absolute that
the arm of the chief soldier is paralysed ; and that, so
enervated and emasculated by restrictions imposed
upon him by law, he cannot wield the sword wdth
honour to himself or advantage to the State, and that,
therefore, he desires to lay it down, he utters words
which, whether he be right or wrong in his estimate
of what ought to be the just balance between the civil
and the military power, are honest, manly, dignified
words, and ought everywhere to be received with
respect. Few men had a better right than Sir Charles
Napier to criticise an Act of Parliament. He had a
right to think that the law was a bad law ; and he had
a right to say that it was bad. But the law, whether
good or bad, was not made by Lord Dalhousie, but
by the British Parliament. It was Dalhousie’s busi-
ness to administer that law, and to maintain the au-
thority vested in him by the Imperial Legislature. Of
this Napier had no right to complain ; and he declared
that he did not complain. But the contest was on
every account an unseemly and an unfortunate one.
It was another and a culminating instance of that
excessive centralisation which weakened the authority

1850 .

S20

THE SEPOY AEMY — ITS DECLINE.

1850 and degraded tlie cliaracter of tlie military arm, and
taught the soldiery that the greatest chief whom Eng-
land could send them was as much a subaltern of the
civil governor as the youngest ensign on the Army
List.

And it taught even more than this. It taught
thinking men, not for the first time, that even the
<;hief members of the Government were at war among
themselves, and the lesson shook their faith in the
stability of a power thus disunited, thus incoherent.
“ I am now sixty years of age,” wrote an intelligent
native official to Sir George Clerk. “ I have heard
three sayings repeated by wise men, and I myself
have also found out, from my own experience, that
the sovereignty of the British Government will not
be overthrown save by the occurrence of three ob-
jectionable circumstances.” And the first of these
circumstances he thus stated: “ Formerly the high,

■ dignified Sahibs had no enmity among themselves, or
at least the people of India never came to know that
they had enmity. Now enmity exists among them,
and it is as well seen as the sun at noonday that they
calumniate and bear malice against each other.”*
Such conflicts of authority are keenly watched and
volubly discussed ; and a significance is attached to
them out of all proportion to the importance with
which amongst us like contentions are invested. The
natives of India know that we are few ; but they feel
that union makes us many. Seen to be at discord
among ourselves, vro shrivel into our true propor-
tions, and it is believed that our power is be^nning
to crumble and decay.

During the administration of Lord EUenborough
there had been disunion among the higher authorities,
arising out of nearly similat causes. The unauthorised
* MS, Cotrespondencc, translated from the Persian*

CONFLICTS OF AUTHOEITT.

321

promises given by tbe Commander-in-Cbief to tbe
Native troops proceeding to Scinde bad stirred tbe re-
sentment of tbe Governor-General, and his grave dis-
pleasure vas excited by the zealous indiscretions of tbe
Madras Government. But he had studiously veiled
from tbe public eye the differences that had arisen.
There was nothing to which he Avas more keenly
alive than to the necessity, especially in troubled times,
of maintaining a show of union and co-operation in the
high places of Government. It was his hard fate at
last to be compelled, by the fiat of a higher power, to
exhibit to the people of India, in his own person, the
very spectacle which he bad striven to conceal from
them, and to declai’e, trumpet-tongued, that the Eng-
lish were vehemently contending among themselves.
But so long as he exercised tbe supreme control be
Avas- cai'eful not to reveal the local dissensions of the
GoA'ernment, lest he should weaken the authority it
Avas so essential to uphold ; and little even is now
knovm of tbe strife that raged at the time, AA'hen the
great difidculty of garrisoning Scinde was filling tbe
minds of the rulers of tbe land. But the strife be-
tween Dalhousie and Napier was proclaimed, almost as
it Avere by beat of drum, in all the Lines and Bazaars
of the cotmtry ; and all men knCAV that the English,
who used so to cling to one another, that it seemed
that they thought Avith one strong brain and struck
with one strong arm, were noAv wasting their Augour
by warring among themselves, and in their disunion
ceasing to be formidable.

This was apparent to all men’s eyes ; but the Sepoy
had his own particular lesson to learn, and did not
neglect it. How it happened that the bitter experi-
ence which the English Government had gained, on
the annexation of Scinde, made no impression upon

1851J

322

THE SEPOY AEMY— ITS DECLINE.

1S30. tlxe minds of those whose duty it was to provide
against the recurrence of similar disasters, it is impos-
sible to explain. All we know is, that five years after
a misunderstanding between the Government and the
Army with respect to the rates of pay and allowance
to be disbursed to the Sepoy, in a newly-acquired
country, had driven into mutiny a large number of
b'ative regiments, and greatly perplexed the rulers of
the day, a similar conjuncture arose, and there was
a similar misunderstanding, with similar results.* The
Sepoy had not learnt to reconcile himself to the British
theory of Annexation, and so he resented it in the
Punjab as he had before resented it in Scinde. In the
latter country the excitement was far greater, and the
danger more serious, than in the former ; but in both
there was an outburst on the one side, and a concession
on the other. That was given to the mutinous soldier,
not without loss of character by Government, which
might before have been given to the loyal one with
befitting <bLgnity and grace. When the emergency
arises, it is hard to say whether there be greater evil
in concession or in resistance. Napier thought the

* TMs uncertainty with respect
to the pay and allowances of dif-
ferent branches and different i^ks
of the Indian Army was emphatically
commented upon by Sir Henry Law-
rence in an article bearing his name
in the Calcutta Eeview : “ Of all
the wants of the Army, perhaps the
greatest want is a simple pay-code,
unmistakably showing the pay of
every rank, m each branch, under all
circumstances. At present there
are not three ofilcers in the Bengal
Army who could, with certainty, tell
what they the people under
them are entitled to in every position
in which they are liable to be placed.
The Audit-olce seldom at ords help,

is considered m enemy r^y to

take advantage of difficulties, not
an umpire between man and man.
During the last thirty years, I have
seen much hardship on officers in
matters of accounts, and of the seve-
ral instances of discontent that I
have witnessed in the Native Army,
all were more or less connected with
pay, and in almost every instance
the men only asked for what they
were by existing rules entitled to.
Half a sheet of paper ought to show
every soldier his rate of pay^ by sea,
by land, on leave, on the staff, in
hospital, on duty, &c. There ought
to be no doubt on the matter. At
present there is great doubt, though
there are volumes of Pay and Audit
Eegnlations.**

DISEEGAEDED WAENINGS.

323

one thing, Dalhousie thought the other; and each
had strong argument on his side. But both must
have bitterly regretted that the contingency was ever
sufiered to arise, that no one in authority, warned
by the lessons of the Past, had learnt to look at the
consequences of Annexation with a Sepoy’s eyes, and
anticipated, by small concessions, the not irrational
expectations which, at a later stage developing into
demands, had all the force and significance of mutinv.
Had this been done ; had the Sepoy been told that in
consideration of increased distance from home, and
other circumstances rendering service in Scinde and
the Punjab more irksome to him than in our older
provinces, certain especial advantages would be con-
ferred upon him — advantages which might have
been bestowed at small cost to the State — ^he would,
have received the boon with gratitude, and ap-
plauded the justice of his masters; but after he
had struck for it, he saw not their justice, but their
fear, in the concession, and he hugged the feeling of
power, which lessons such as these could not fail to
engender.

1850 ,

324

THE MILnAEY SYSTEM OF INDIA.

CHAPTER V.

CHAllACTEK OF THE BEHeAl SEPOY — CONPLIOTHTG OPnnOHS— CASTE— THE
SENIORITY SYSTEM — ^THE OTPICERING OP THE ARMY — ^REGULAR AND
raREGHIAR REGIMENTS— WANT OP EUROPEANS— THE CRIMEAN WAR—
INDIAN PUBLIC OPINION— SUMMARY OP DETERIORATING INPLUENCBS.

IS51.56. After tMSj there was again a season of quiet. The
nnnaining years of Lord Dalhousie’s administration
passed away without any further military outbreaks
to disturb his rooted conviction of the fidelity of the
Sepoy. There were not wanting those who declared
that there was an ineradicable taint in the constitu-
tion of the Bengal Army, that it was rotten to the
very core. But the angry controversies which arose
— ^the solemn warnings on the one side, and the in-
dignant denials on the other — ^proved nothing more
than that among men, entitled to speak with authority
on the subject, there were vast diversities of opinion.
Much of this was attributed to class prejudices and
professional jealousies. One voice, very loud and
very earnest, pealing from the "West, sustained for
years a continual remonstrance against the laxities of
the Bengal System. But Bengal resented the outi
rage. A genuine man, above aU pettiness, John
Jacob, was declared to be the exponent only of
small Presidential envyings and heart-burnings. The
voice of Truth was pro^imed to be the voice of

STATE OF THE BENGAL ARMY.

325

Bombay. And "when officers of the Bengal Anny
■wrote, as some did most •wisely, of the evil symp-
toms which were manifesting themselves, and of the
dangers which appeared to be looming in the dis-
tance, they were denounced as defilers of their own
nest, and as feeble-minded alarmists, to whose utter-
ances no heed should be given. There was a general
unwillingness to believe in the decay of discipline
throughout one of the finest armies of the -world;
and in the absence of any outward signs of mischief,
we willingly consented not to look beneath the surface
for the virus of undeveloped disease.

There is nothing that is strange, and little that is
blamable in this. The Bengal Sepoy had evinced
signs of a froward, petulant nature, and he had, on
several occasions, broken out after a fashion which,
■vie-w-ed by European military eyes, is criminality of
the deepest dye. But these aberrations were merely
a few dark spots upon a century of good service. It
was not right that rare exceptions of this kind should
cancel in our minds all the noble acts of fidelity which
were chronicled in the history of our empire. Nor
was it to be forgotten that, in most instances, the
criminalily of the Sepoy had been the direct gro-wth
of some mismanagement on the part either of the offi-
cers whom he followed or the Government which he
served. To have looked with suspicion on the Sepoy,
because from time to time some component parts of
our Army had done that, which the Armies of every
Native State had done, with their whole accumulated
strength, would have been equally unwise and unjust.
For although it might be said that the examples,
which those Native States afforded, ought to have
taught us to beware of the destroying power of a
lawless soldiery, the English were justified in be-

1851-56.

326

THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF mBIA.

1551-56.

'ULaracter of
the Sepoy.

lieving tlial' there were special reasons why their oym
mercenaries should not tread in the footsteps of the
Mahratta and Sikh Armies. They did not believe in
the love of the Sepoy ; but they believed in his fidelity
to his Pay.

Whilst it was natural, and indeed commendable,
that the remembrance of aU the good service which
the Native soldiery had done for their English masters,
should have sustained our confidence in them as a
body, there was nothing in the individual character
of the Sepoy to subvert it. Even his outbreaks of
rebellion had recently partaken more of the naughti-
ness of the child than of the stern resolution of man-
hood. He had evinced a disposition, indeed, rather
to injure himself than to injure others ; and it was
not easy for those who knew him to believe that he
was capable of any violent and sanguinary excesses.
His character was made up of inconsistencies, but the
weaker and less dangerous qualities appeared to have
the preponderance ; and though we knew that they
made him a very difiicult person to manage, we did
not think that they made him a dangerous one. From
the time when, in the very infancy of the Sepoy Army,
a Madras soldier cut down Mr. Haliburton, and was
immediately put to death by his own comrades, to the
day when Colin Mackenzie was weU-nigh butchered at
Bolaxum by troopers of his own brigade, there had
been ever and anon some murderous incidents to dis-
figure theMilitary History of our Indian Empire. * Bnt
outrages of this kind are common to all armies ; and
there was no reason to regard them in any other light
than that of exceptional aberrations. It was not to

* Sm WilBams’s Bengal Army aeclion outlie Sepoy Army in Sather-
bod Maokemae’s NarratiTe of the land’s Sketches of the Native States
Mntiny at Bdarom; compare also of India.

CHAEACTER OF THE BENGAL SEPOY.

337

be said that the Sepoy "was a ruffian because be bad
done some ruffianly deeds.

He was, indeed, altogether a paradox. He was
made up of inconsistencies and contradictions. In his
character, qualities, so adverse as to be apparently
irreconcilable with each other, met together and em-
braced. He was simple and yet designing ; credulous
and easily deceived by others, and yet obstinately
tenacious of his own in-bred convictions ; now docile
as a child, and now hard and immovable in the stub-
bornness of his manhood. Abstemious and yet self-
indulgent, calm and yet impetuous, gentle and yet
cruel, he was indolent even to languor in his daily
life, and yet capable of being roused to acts of the
most desperate energ}n Sometimes sportive, and
sometimes sullen, he was easily elevated and easily
depressed ; but he was for the most part of a cheerful
nature, and if you came suddenly upon him in the
Lines you were more likely to see him with a broad
grin upon his face than with any expression of
moroseness or discontent. But light-hearted as was
his general temperament, he would sometimes brood
over imaginary wrongs, and when a ddusion once
entered his soul it clung to it with the subtle male-
volence of an ineradicable poison.

And this, as we now understand the matter, was
the most dangerous feature of his character. For his
gentler, more genial qualities sparkled upon the
surface and were readily appreciated, whilst aU. the
harsher and more forbidding traits lay dark and
disguised, and were not discernible in our ordinary
intercourse with him. There was outwardly, indeed,
very much to rivet the confidence of the European
officer, and very little to disturb it. It is true that
if we reasoned about it, it did not seem to be alto-

1851 - 56 .

328

THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF INDU.

IS51-56. gather reasonable to expect from the Sepoy any
strong affection for the alien officer who had usurped
all the high places of the Army, and who kept him
down in the dead level of the dust. But Englishmen
never reason about their position in the midst of a
community of strangers; they take their popularity
for granted, and look for homage as a thing of course.
And that homage was yielded to the British officer,
not for his own sake, for the Sepoy hated his colour
and his creed, his unclean ways, and his domineering
manners; but because he was an embodiment of
Success. It was one of the many inconsistencies of
which I have spoken, that though boastful and vain-
glorious beyond all example, the Native soldier of
India inwardly acknowledged that he owed to the
English officer the aliment which fed his passion for
glory and sustained his military pride. This, indeed,
was the link that bound class to class, and resisted
the dissolving power of many adverse influences. It
was this that moved the Sepoy to light up the tomb
of his old commanding officer ; it was this that moved
the veteran to salute the picture of the General under
whom he had fought. But there was a show also
of other and gentler feelings, and there were instances
of strong personal attachment, of unsurpassed fidelity
and devotion, manifested in acts of charity and love.
You might see the Sepoy of many fights, watchful
and tender as a woman, beside the sick-bed of the
English officer, or playing with the pale-faced chil-
dren beneath the verandah of his captain’s bungalow.
There was not an English gentlewoman in the
country who did not feel measureless security in the
thought that a guard of Sepoys watched her house,
or who would not have travelled, under such an
escort, across the whole length and breadth of the

DEFECTS ET THE SYSTEJI.

329

land. What was lurking beneath the fair surface we issi-se.
knew not. We saw only the softer side of the
Sepoy’s nature ; and there was nothing to make us
believe that there was danger in the confidence which
we reposed in those outward signs of attachment to
our rule.

But whilst cherishing this not unreasonable con- Defects. iui
fidence in the general good character of the Sepoy,
the British Government might still have suffered
some doubts and misgivings to arise when they looked
into the details of the System. They might, it has
been urged, have believed in the soundness of the
whole, but admitted the defectiveness of parts, and
addressed themselves earnestly and deliberately to
the details of the great work of Army Reform. In-
stead of boasting that the condition of the Native
soldier left nothing to be desired, Lord Dalhousie, it
is said, ought to have looked beneath the surface, to
have probed all the vices of the existing system, and
to have striven with all his might to eradicate them.
Information was not wanting. “ Officers of expe-
rience” were at aU times ready to tell him what it
behoved him to do. But in the multitude of coun-
sellors there was inextricable confusion. As with the
whole, so with the parts. The forty years’ experience
of one greybeard belied the forty years’ experience
of another. And when the responsible ruler had
been almost persuaded to see a blot and to promise
to erase it, another adviser came, straightway de-
clared it to be a beauty, and besought him to leave it
as it was. Thus distracted by the conflicting judg-
ments of the best military critics, Dalhousie did, as
others had done before him ; he admitted that if he
had then for the first time to construct a Native
Army it would in some respects differ from that

330

THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF IIWIA.

1551-56, wHcli h.e saw before him, the growth not of systems
and theories but of circmnstances ; but that as it had
gro\vn up, so on the whole it was better to leave it,
as Change is sometimes dangerous, and almost always
misunderstood.

That, indeed, there was no more difficult question
to understand than that of the Sepoy Army, was a
fact which must have been continually forced upon
the mind of the Governor-General, by the discordant
opinions which were pronounced on points vitally
affecting its fidelity and efficiency. Even on the
Uiuie. great question of Caste, men differed. Some said it
was desirable that our Native regiments should be
composed mainly of high-caste men ; because in such
men were combined many of the best qualities, moral
and physical, which contribute to the formation of
an accomplished soldier. The high-caste man had a
bolder spirit, a purer professional pride, a finer frame,
and a more military bearing, than his countryman of
lower social rank. Other authorities contended that

that no account should be taken of Caste distinctions,
and that the smaller the proportion of Brahmins and
Eajpoots in the service the better for the discipline
of the Army,* Comparisons were drawn between the
Bengal and the Bombay Armies. There was a strong
and not imnatural prejudice in favour of the Bengal
Sepoy ; for he was a fine, noble-looking fellow, and in
comparison with his comrades from the Southern and
Western Presidencies, was said to be quite a gentle-
man ; but there were those who alleged that he was
more a gentleman than a soldier ; and it was urged
that the normal state of the Bengal Army was Mutiny,
because in an Army so constituted Caste was ever

* For tlie statfelics ^ Obsle w. tlie Sepoy Arroj, see Appendix.

fflGH CASTE AND LOW CASTE.

331

stronger than Discipline ; and the social institutions 1S51-56.
of the Sepoy domineered over the necessities of the
State.

It was contended, for this reason, that the Bengal
Army required a larger infusion of low-caste men.

But it was alleged, on the other hand, that this very
mixture of castes tended to destroy the discipline of
which it was proposed to make it the preservative ;
for that military rank was held to he nothing in com-
parison with Brahminical Elevation, and that the
Sepoy was often the “master of the officer.”* To this
it was replied that the presumption of Caste was
favoured and fostered hy the weakness and indul-
gence of the officers of the Bengal Army ; that, in the
armies of Madras and Bombay, Caste had found its
level ; that it had neither been antagonistic to good
service, nor injurious to internal discipline; that
high-caste men in those armies did cheerfully what
they refused to do in Bengal, and that low-caste
native officers met with all the respect from their
social superiors due to their superior military rank.

It was asserted, indeed, that Brahminism was arro-
gant and exacting in Bengal, because it saw that it
could play upon the fears of the English officers. To
this it was replied, that disregard Caste as we might,
we could never induce the natives to disregard it.

And then again the rejoinder was, that in the other
Presidencies we had taught them to disregard it, why,
then, might not the same lesson be taught in Bengal?

The answer to this was, that men will often do in
other countries what they cannot be persuaded to do

* "I cannot conceive the pos- down to Mm witH liis forehead m
sibility of maintaining discipline in a the ground. I have seen this done*
corps where a low-caste non-com- The Sepoy thus treated is the master
missioned officer will, when he meets of tlie officer .” — Edshnee ^
off duty a Brahmin Sepoy, crouch General Birck

382

THE MILITART SYSTEM OF INDIA.

1851-50. in their own ; that high-caste Hindostanees enlisting
into the Bomhay or Madras Armies werej to a great
extent, cut off from the brotherhood, that they were
greatly outnumbered in their several regiments, that
it was convenient to conform to the custom of the
country, and that what he did in a foreign country
among strangers was little known at home. In a
word, when he took service in the Bombay Army, he
did what was done in Bombay ; just as among our-
selves, men who, fearful of losing caste, would on no
account be seen to enter a London heU, think nothing
of spending whole days in the gambling-rooms of
Homburg or Baden-Baden.

Rationalities. Of a kindred nature was the question hotly dis-
cussed, whether it were wiser to compose each regi-
ment of men of the same race, or to mix up different
races in the same corps. On the one hand, it was
alleged that the fusion of different nationalities had a
tendency to keep internal combinations in check ; but
that if men of one tribe were formed into separate re-
giments; if we had Patan regiments and Goorkha
re^ments, Sikh regiments and Mahratta regiments,
facilities for mutinous combinations would be greatly
increased. On the other hand, it was contended that
the fusion of different tribes and castes in the several
regiments encouraged external combinations by im-
parting common interests to the whole Army ; that
if safety were to be sought m the antagonism of na-
tionahties, it was more likely to be attained by keep-
ing them apart than by fusing them into a hetero-
geneous mass ; that it was easier to keep one regiment
from following the example of another composed of
different materials, raised and stationed in a different
part of the country, than to keep one half of a regi-
ment from foUomng the example of the other ; easier

POINTS OF CONTEOVERSY.

333

io make men fight against those whom they had never 1S51-53.
seen, than against those with whom they had long
lived, if not in brotherhood of caste, at least in bro-
therhood of service.

Again, men discussed, with reference to this ques- Local and Ge.
tion of combination, the relative advantages and dis- Semce.
advantages of localisation and distribution. Whilst
some contended that the difierent Sepoy regiments
should serve respectively only in certain parts of the
country, except under any peculiar exigencies of war
— ^in other words, that they should be assimilated as
much as po&sible to a sort of local militia — others
were in favour of the existing system, under which
there were periodical reliefs, and regiments marched
from one station to another, often many hundreds of
miles apart. On the one hand it was argued that
there was much danger in the local influence which
would be acquired by men long resident in the same
place, and that intrigues and plots, rendered perilous
by the fusion of the civil and military classes, might
result from this localisation j and, on the other, it
was urged that it was far more dangerous to suffer
the Sepoy regiments to become extensively acquainted
with each other, for the men to form fi:iendships, and
therefore to have correspondents in other corps, and
thus to afford them the means, in times of excitement,
of forming extensive combinations, and spreading, as
it were, a network of conspiracy over the whole face
of the country. Thus, again, men of wisdom and ex-
perience neutralised one another’s judgments, and
from amongst so many conflicting opinions it was
impossible to evolve the truth.

It was a question also much debated whether the Famiiiea
fidelity and efldciency of the Sepoy were best main-
tained by keeping him af art from his family, or by

834

THE MILITAfiY SYSTEM OE INDU,

1851-56. suffering the wives, the children, and the dependents
of the soldier to attach themselves to his regiment,
and. to follow his fortunes. The former was the system
in the Bengal Army; the latter, in the Army of
Madras, and partially in that of Bombay. Each sys^
tern had its advocates; each its special advantages.
The Bengal Sepoy visited his family at stated times,
and remitted to them a large part of his pay. If he
failed to do this he was a marked man in his re^-
ment ; and, it was said, that the knowledge that if he
failed in his duty as a soldier, a report of his miscon-
duct would surely reach his native village, and that
his face would be blackened before his kindred, kept
him in the strict path of his duty. The presence of
the Family led to much inconvenience and embar-
rassment, and the necessity of moving it from one
station to another, when the regiments were relieved,
strained the scanty resources of the Sepoy, and de-
veloped grievances out of which mutiny might arise.*
It was said, indeed, that there was “ hardly a Native
regiment in the Bengal Army in which the twenty
drummers, who were Christians, and had their
families with them, did not cause more trouble to
their officers than the whole eight hundred Sepoys.”f
On the other hand, it was urged that the presence of
the Family afforded the best guarantee for the fidelity
and good condxict of the Sepoy. His children were
hostages in our hands ; the honour of his women was
in our keeping. These were held to be safeguards
against mutiny and massacre. It was urged, too,
that the system tended more to keep them, as a race,
apart from the general mass of their countrymen;
that the ties which bound them to the country were

* See the case d tiie Satli f Sleeman on the Spirit of Disoi-
Madras Cavalry, mU, page 291. pline in the Native Aimy*

THE SENIOMTr SYSTEM.

335

thus weakened, and their interests more indissolubly
associated with the State. They were less represen-
tative men than their brethren of the Bengal Army,
and more a part of the machinery of Government.
And so each system had its advocates, and each was
left to work itself out and develop its o^vn results.

Great, also, was the difference of opinion with respect
to Promotion. Some said that the Bengal Army was
destroyed by the Seniority system, which gave to every
Sepoy in the service an equal chance of rising to the
rank of a Commissioned Officer.* Others maintained
that this was the very sheet-anchor which enabled it
to resist aH adverse influences. Strong arguments
were adduced, and great names were quoted upon
both sides. It was said that under such a system
there was no incentive to exertion; that the men
were independent of their officers, that they had no
motive to earn the good opinion of their superiors, that
it was enough for them to drowse through a certain
number of years of service, to slide quietly into a
commission, and then to end their military lives in a
state of senile somnolence and apathy. The Native
officers of the Bengal Army were, therefore, for the
most part, respectable, worn-out, feeble-minded old
men, with no influence in their regiments, and no de-
sire beyond that of saving themselves as much trouble
as possible, and keeping things as quiet as they could.
On the other hand, it was alleged that the seniority
system was the very prop and support of the Sepoy
service ; that all men were happy and contented, and
had some aliment of hope, so long as they felt that
nothing but their own misconduct could deprive them
of the right of succession to the highest grades of the

* To every regiment of X^ative dar-major, ten Boubaiidai'S, imd tm
infantry were attached one Soubaih- Jemadars.

1S51

Promotion,

336

THE Mn.rrAET SYSTEM OE INDIA.

51-56. Native Army. It was said that to pass over a man at
the head of the list, and to give promotion to others
of shorter service, would he to flood the regiments with
desperate malcontents, or else with sullen, broken-
spirited idlers. Whilst Henry Laivrence and John
Jacob were descanting on the evil of filling the com-
missioned ranks of the Sepoy Army with “poor old
wretches, feeble in body and imbecile in mind,”*
Charles Napier was peremptorily commanding that
“ the fullest attention and consideration should inva-
riably be given to the claim of seniority in every
grade” of the Native Army, and William Sleeman
was asserting, not less emphatically, in his published
writings, that “ though we might have in every regi-
ment a few smarter Native officers, by disregarding
the rule of promotion than by adhering to it, we
should, in the diminution of good feeling towards
the European officers and the Government, lose a
thousand times more than we gained. ”f What won-
der, then, that Governor-General after Governor-Ge-
neral was perplexed and bewildered, and left things,
when he passed away from the scene, as he found
them on his first arrival.

* Views and Opinions of General
John Jacob, p. 120; compare also
Sir Henry Lawrence’s Bssaps, Mili-
tary and FoUHeal, p. 24 et seq.

f Sleeman relates, that “an old
Soubahdar, who had been at the
taking of the Isle of France, men-
tioned that when be was the senior
Jemadar of his regiment,^ and a
vacancy had occurred to bring him
in as Soubahdar, he was sent for by
his commanding officer, and told that
by orders from Head-Quarters he
was to be passed over, on account of
his advanced age and supposed in-
firmity. * I felt/ said the old man,
* as if I had been struck by lightning,
and fell down dead. The Colonel

was a good man, and had seen much
service. He had me taken into the
open air, and when I recovered he
told me that he would write to the
Comniander-in-Oliief and represent
my case. He did so immediately,
and I was promoted, and I have
since done my duty as Soubahdar for
ten years.’ ” But, it may be asked,
kowt It must be borne in mini
too, that Sleeman speaks here of
the effect of supersession under a
Seniority system. Under a system of
selection such results wmuld not be
apparent, because there would not be
the same disgrace in being passed
over.

OFFICEEIKG OP THE AKMY.

337

Then, again, there were wide diversities of opinion 1851-tti
with respect to the European officering of regiments. Europea#
There were those who contended for the Irregular and
those who were loud in their praises of the Regular
system ; some who thought it better to attach to each
regiment a few select officers, as in the old times,
giving them some power and authority over their
men ; and others who believed it to be wiser to officer
the regiments after the later English system, like regi-
ments of the Line, with a large available surplus for
purposes of the General Staff, and to leave all the
centralised power and authority in the hands of the
Adjutant-General of the Army.* There was a con-
tinual cry, not always, it must be admitted, of the
most unselfish character, for “ more officers and
yet it was plain that the Irregular regiments, to
which only three or four picked officers were at-
tached, were in a perfect state of discipline in peace,
and capable of performing admirable service in war.

It was said that in action the Sepoys, losing their
officers, killed or carried wounded to the rear, lost
heart, and were soon panic-struck ; and that if officers
were so few, this contingency must often happen. To
this, however, it w'as replied, that if the Native
officers were of the right class, they would keep their
men together, and still do good service ; but if they
were worn-out imbeciles, or over-corpulent and scant
of breath, of course disorder and ruin must follow
the fall of the English officers. Then, hearing this,
the disputant on the other side would triumphantl}
ask how many years’ purchase our empire in India
were worth, if our Native officers were as efficient as

^ A regiment of Native Infantry 5 ensigns. A few ^ months ate-
5n March, 1856, was officered by 1 wards another captain and another
colonel, 1 lieutenant-colonel, 1 ma- lieutenant were aided to each regv
jor, 6 captains, 10 lieutenants, and meat.

338

THE MILITAET SYSTEM OF INDIA.

1S51 -56. ourselves. It -was often argued, indeed, that our in-
structions might some day return to plague the in-
ventor ; that to make men qualified to lead our bat-
talions to battle against our enemies is to qualify
them to command troops to fight against ourselves.
But there were others, and chief among them Henry
Lawrence, who, taking a larger and more liberal view
of the question, contended that it was sound policy
to give to every man, European and Native, a motive
for exertion; who declared that it was one of the
crying wants of our system that it afforded no outlet
for the energies of Native soldiers of superior courage
and ability, and urged that we could not expect to
have an efiicient Native Army so long as we rigidly
maintained in it the theory of the Dead Level, and
purposely excluded every possible inducement to
superior exertion.

Nor less curious were the fundamental diversities
of opinion which manifested themselves, when think-
ing men began to consider whether the English in
India carried into their daily lives too much or too
little of their nationality. It was asserted on the one
side that the English officer was too stiff-necked and
exclusive, that he dwelt apart too much, and subdued
himself too little to surrounding influences ; and on
the other side, that he fell too rapidly into Oriental
habits, and soon ceased to be, what it should have
been his ambition to remain to the last, a model of
an English Gentleman. It was urged by some that
increased facilities of intercourse with Europe ren-
dered men more dissatisfied with the ordinary en-
vironments of Eastern life and professional duty,
whilst others declared that one of the most serious
defects in the Indian Military System was the diflfi-
culty ■with which the English officer obtained furlough

DIVERSITIES OF OPINION.

339

to Europe.* The stringency of the Furlough Regula- 1851-56.
tions had, however, been greatly relaxed during the
administration of Lord Dalhousie, and the establish-
ment of regular steam-communication between the
two countries had made the new rules practical
realities. But whatsoever increased intercom'se with
Europe may have done to promote the application of
Western science to our Indian Military System, it did
not improve the regimental officer. It was contended
that he commonly returned to his duty -with increased
distaste for cantonment life ; and that he obeyed the
mandate, “ Let it be the fashion to be English,” by
suffering a stiU greater estrangement to grow up
between him and the Native soldier.

Indeed, there was scarcely a single point, in the
whole wide range of topics connected with the great
subject of the efficiency of the Native Indian Army,
which did not raise a doubt and suggest a contro-
versy. And there was so much of demonstrable
truth in the assertions, and so much cogency in the
arguments adduced, on both sides, that in the eyes of
the looker-on it was commonly a drawn battle between
the two contending parties; and so, as it was the
easier and perhaps the safer course to leave things as
they were, the changes which Army Reformers so
earnestly advocated were practically rejected, and we
clung to evils which had grown up in the system
rather than we would incur the risk of instituting
others of our own.

But perplexing as were these practical details, there Intemixtaw
was nothing so difficult of solution as the great doubt
which arose as to the amount of confidence in the
Sepoy Army which it was expedient outwardly to
manifest. It was said, upon the one hand, that any

♦ Views md Opinions of Brigadier-General John JaeoL

z 2

340

THE MUITART SYSTEM OF INDU.

1851 - 56 . diminution of our confidence would be fatal to our
mile, and, on tbe other, that our confidence was lead-
ing us onward to destruction. Some said that the
Native Army should be narrowly watched, and held
in control by sufficient bodies of European soldiery ;
others contended that we could commit no more fatal
mistake than that of betraying the least suspicion of
the Sepoy, and suggesting even a remote possibilily
of one part of our Army ever being thrown into an-
tagonism to the other. This controversy was half a
century old. When, after the Massacre of Vellore, the
Madras Government urged upon the Supreme Autho-
rity in Bengal the expediency of sending some rein-
forcements of European troops to the Coast, the latter
refused to respond to the call, on the ground that
such a movement would betray a general want of
confidence in the Native Army, and might drive re-
giments still loyal into rebellion under an impulse of
fear. There was force in this argument, which will
be readily appreciated by all who understand the
character of the Sepoy Army ; and its cogency was
not dimmished by the fact put forth by the Madras
Government that the European troops under their
command were fewer by t\vo thousand men than
they had been before the recent large extension of
territory. But a great lesson was to be learnt from
the embarrassment which then arose ; a lesson which
ought to have been taken to the hearts of our rulers
from one generation to another. It was then clearly
revealed, not merely that “ prevention is better than
cure,” but that prevention may be possible when cure
is not ; that we may hold danger in check by quietly
anticipating it, but that, when it has arisen, the mea-
sures, to which we might have resorted before the
fact, cannot he pursued, after it, without increasing

AMOUNT OP EUEOPEAN FORCE.

341

the evil. If anything should teach us the wisdom of 1851.56.
never suffering our European force, even in the most
tranquil times, to decline below what we may call
“ the athletic standard,” it is the fact that, w^hen the
times cease to be tranquil, we cannot suddenly raise it
to that standard without exciting alarm and creating
danger.

But this lesson was not learnt Or, if Indian
statesmen ever took it to their hearts, it wms remorse-
lessly repudiated in the Councils of the English
nation. Other considerations than those of the actual
requirements of our Indian Empire were suffered to
determine the amount of European strength to be
maintained on the Company’s establishment. Stated
in round numbers, it may be said that the normal
state of things, for some years, had been that of an
Army of three hundred thousand men, of which forty
thousand were European troops.* Of these, roughly
calculated, about one-third were the local European
troops of the Company, raised exclusively for Indian
service; the rest were the men of royal regiments.

Horse and Foot, periodically relieved according to
the will of the Imperial Government, but paid out of
the Revenues of India. In the five years preceding the
departure of Lord Halhousie from India, the strength
of the Company’s European troops had been somewhat
increased, but the force which England lent to India
was considerably reduced. In 1852, there were
twenty-nine Royal re^ments in the three Presidencies
of India, mustering twenty-eight thousand men ; in
1856, there were twenty-four Royal regiments, mus-
tering twenty-three thousand men. During those
five years there had been a vast extension of empire ;
but the aggregate European strength was lower in
* For the details of tlie Natire Array of India, see Tables in Appendix,

342

THE MILITAEY SYSTEM OF INDIA.

1851-56. 1856 than in 1852 by nearly three thousand men.
Between those two dates England had been engaged
in a great war, and she wanted her troops for Eu-
ropean service.

The Crimean deceive ourselves, when we think that Euro-

pean politics make no impression on the Indian Public.
The impression may be very vague and indistinct;
but ignorance is a magnifier of high power, and there
are never wanting a few designing men, with clearer
knowledge of the real state of things, to work upon
the haziness of popular conceptions, and to turn a
little grain of truth to account in generating a harvest
. of lies. That a number of very preposterous stories
were industriously circulated, and greedily swallowed,
during the Crimean w'ar, and that these stories all
pointed to the downfal of the British power, is not
to be doubted. It was freely declared that Russia
had conquered and annexed England, and that Queen
Victoria had fled and taken refuge with the Governor-
General of India. The fact that the war was with
Russia gave increased significance to these rumours ;
for there had long been a chronic belief that the Russ-
logue would some day or other contend with us for
the mastery of India ; that, coming down in immense
hordes from the North, and carrying with them the
intervening Mahomedan States, they would sweep us,
broken and humbled, into the sea. And it required
no great acuteness to perceive that if a popular insur-
rection in India were ever to be successful, it was when
the military resources of the empire were absorbed by
a great European war. It is at such times as these,
therefore, when there is always some disturbance of
the public mind, that especial care should be taken
to keep the European strength in India up to the
right athletic standard. But, in these very times, the

DEFICIENCY OF EUROPEAN FORCE.

343

dependency is called upon to aid tlie empire, and her 18 S 1 - 5 G
European regiments are reluctantly given up at the
critical moment when she most desires to retain them.

“The idea broached in Parliament,” said a Native
gentleman, “ of drawing troops from India for the
Crimean War, took intelligent natives of India by sur-
prise.” They saw plainly the folly of thus revealing
our weakness to the subject races ; for we could not
more loudly proclaim the inadequacy of our resources
than by denuding ourselves in one quarter of the
world in order that we might clothe ourselves more
sufficiently in another.

Nor was it this alone that, during the last years of
Lord Dalhousie’s administration, “took intelligent
natives of India by surprise.” They saw us increas-
ing our territory, in all directions, without increasing
our European force. There were those who argued
that territorial increase did not necessarily demand
increased means of defence, as it might be a change,
not an extension of frontier ; indeed, that the consoli-
dation of our empire, by diminishing the numbers of
our enemies, ought rather to be regarded as a reason
for the diminution of our military strength. And
this, in respect to our external enemies, it has already
been observed, was not untrue.* But our dangers were
from within, not from without ; and it was forgotten
that false friends might be more dangerous than open
enemies. The English in India were, indeed, con-
tinually in a state of siege, and the conquest of their
external enemies increased the perils of their position,
for it deprived them of those safety-valves which had
often before arrested a ruinous explosion. We were
far too sanguine in our estimates of the results of con-
quest or annexation. We saw everything as we wished
• JiOe, p. m.

344

THE MILITAEY Si'STEJI OF ESDIA.

1861-56. to see it. We saw contentment in submission, loyalty
in quiescence ; and took our estimate of national sen-
timent from the feelings of a few interested individuals
who were making money by the change. But “ intel-
ligent natives” seeing clearly our delusion, knowing
that we believed a lie, wondered greatly at our want
of wisdom in suffering vast tracts of territory, per-
haps only recently brought under British rule, to lie
naked and defenceless, without even a detachment of
English fighting men to guard the lives of the new
masters of the count^ 3 ^ And little as we gave them
credit for sagacity in such matters, they touched the
very kernel of our danger with a needle’s point, and
predicted that our confidence would destroy us.

It was fortunate that, when we conquered the
Punjab, it was impossible to forget that Afghanistan,
still festering with animosities and resentments boni
of the recent invasion, lay contiguous to the frontier
of our new province. It was fortunate, too, that
Henry Lawrence, being a man of a quick imagina-
tion, could feel as a Sikh chief or a Sikh soldier would
feel under the new yoke of the Feringhee, and could
therefore believe that we were not welcomed as de-
liverers from one end of the country to the other.
But it was not fortunate that the obvious necessity
of garrisoning this frontier Province with a strong
European force should have been practically regarded
as a reason for denuding all the rest of India of Eng-
lish troops. Acting in accordance with the old tradi-
tions, that the only danger with which our position
in India is threatened, is danger coming from the
North-West, we massed a large body of Europeans
in the Punjab, and scattered, at wide intervals, the
few remaining re^ments at our disposal over other
parts of our extended dominions. Thus we visibly

THE ANNEXATION OF OEDE.

345

became more and more dependent on our Native 1851-56.
Army ; and it needed only the declaration of weak-
ness made, when England called on India for regi-
ments to take part in the Crimean war, to assure
“intelligent natives” that the boasted resources of
England were wholly insufficient to meet the demands
made upon them from different quarters, and that we
could only confront danger in one part of the world
by exposing ourselves to it in another.*

And this impression was strengthened by the fact Effects of the
that when Oude was annexed to our British terri-^™”®^'°“‘‘*
tories, although the province was thereby filed with
the disbanded soldiery of the destroyed Native Govern-
ment, and with a dangerous race of discontented
nobles, whom the revolution had stripped of their
privileges and despoiled of their wealth, the English
appeared not to possess the means of garrisoning with
European troops the country which they had thus
seized. As Oude was not a frontier province, there
was no necessity to mass troops there, as in the
Punjab, for purposes of external defence ; and the
English, emboldened by success, were stronger than
ever in their national egotism, and believed that, as
they could not be regarded in Oude in any other light
than that of deliverers, there was small need to make
provision against the possibility of internal disturb-
ance. They left the province, therefore, after annexa-
tion had been proclaimed, with only a small handful of
European fighting men ; and “ intelligent natives”
were again surprised to see that the English gentlemen
were carrying out their new scheme of administra-
tion, to the ruin of almost every pre-existing interest

* It has been alleged, too, that the gent natives with the belief that we
subscriptions raised towards the sup- were as short of money as we were
port or the Patriotic Fund, daring of men,
the Crimean War, impressed intelh-

1851 ^ 6 ,

346 THE MIUTARY SYSTEM OF IXDIA.

in. the country, with as much confidence as if every
district of Oude were bristling with British bayonets.
They saw, too, that the English had absorbed one of
the last remaining Mahomedan States of India ; and
they felt that not only would this prodigious appro-
priation be regarded from one end of India to the
other as the precursor of new seizures, and that it
would thus greatly disturb the public mind, but that
the very class of men on whom we appeared to rely
for the continued security of our position were, of aU
others, most likely to resent this act of aggression.

For the annexation of Oude had some results in-
jurious to the Sepoy. A very large portion of the
Bengal Army Avas drawn from that province. In
every village were the families of men who wore the
uniform and bore the arms of the English. Being for
the most part high-caste Hindoos, they might not
have regarded the peaceful revolution by which a
Mahomedan monarchy was destroyed with any strong
feelings of national resentment ; and it is certain that
this extension of territory was not provocative of the
feelings of aversion and alarm Avith which they re-
garded those other seizures which had sent them to
rot in the charnel-house of Scinde, or to perish in
exile on the frontiers of Afghanistan. Their griefs
were of another kind. The old state of things had
suited them better. They had little sympathy, per-
haps, Avith "Wajid Ali, and service in Oude brought
them nearer to their homes. But so long as it was a
foreign province, they derived certain special priAu-
leges and advantages from their position as the
servants of the Company, and increased importance
in the eyes of the people of the province. They had,
indeed, been a favoured race, and as such the Sepoy
fa m i li es had held up their heads above those of their

PRIVILEGES OF THE OUDE SEPOYS.

847

countrymen who had no such bonds of privilege and 1851-56
protection to unite them to the Paramount State.

“ The Sepoy,” wrote the man who had studied the
character and probed the feelings of the Native more
deeply and philosophically perhaps than any of his
contemporaries — “ the Sepoy is not the man of con-
sequence he was. He dislikes annexations; among
other reasons, because each new province added to
the Empire widens his sphere of service, and at the
same time decreases our foreign enemies and thereby) '

the Sepoy’s importance The other day, an

Oude Sepoy of the Bombay Cavalry at Neemuch,
being asked if he liked annexation, replied, ‘ No ; I
used to be a great man when I went home. The best
in my village rose as I approached. Now the lowest
puff their pipes in my face.’ ”* Under the aU-pre-
vailing lawlessness and misrule, which had so long
overridden the province, the English Sepoy, whatever
might be the wrongs of others, was always sure of a
full measure of justice on appeal to the British
Resident. If he himself were not, some member of
his family was, a small yeoman, with certain rights in
the land — rights which commonly among his country-
men were as much a source of trouble as a source of
pride — and in all the disputes and contentions in
which these interests involved him, he had the pro-
tection and assistance of the Resident, and right or
wrong carried his point. In the abstract it was,
doubtless, an evil state of things, for the Sepoys’

^ Sir Henry Lawrence to Lord officer what we would do without
Canning, MS. Correspondence. I them. Another said, ‘ Now you have
may give here in a note the words got the Punjab, you will reduce the
omitted in the text, as bearing, Army.’ A third remarked, when he
though not immediately, upon the heard that Scinde was to be joined
Oude question, and upon the general to the Bengal Presidency, ‘ Perhaps
subject of annexation: “ Ten years there will be an order to join Lon-
ago, a Sepoy in the Punjab asked an don to Bengal.* ^*

848

THE jntlTAEY SYSTEM OF INDIA.

1851-56. privileges were often used as instruments of oppre?-
sion, and were sometimes counterfeited with the hel|
of an old regimental jacket and pair of boots, by mei.
who had never gone right-face to the word of com-
mand. But for this very reason they were dearly
valued; and when the Sepoys were thus brought
down by annexation to the dead level of British sub-
jects, when the Residency ceased to be, and all men
were equally under the protection of the Commis-
sioner, the Sepoy families, like all the other privileged
classes in Oude, learnt what the revolution had cost
them, and, wide apart as their several grievances lay
from each other, they joined hands wdth other sufferers
over a common grief.

Summary of
deteriorating
induences.

Looking, then, at the condition of the Native Army
of India, and especially at the state of the Bengal re-
giments, as it was in the spring of 1856, we see that a
series of adverse circumstances, culminating in the
annexation of Oude, some influencing him from with-
out and some from within, had weakened the attach-
ment of the Sepoy to his colours. We see that, whilst
the bonds of internal discipline were being relaxed,
external events, directly or indirectly affecting his
position, were exciting within him animosities and
discontents. We see that as he grew less faithful and
obedient, he grew also more presuming ; that whilst
he was less under the control of his officers and the
dominion of the State, he was more sensible of the
extent to which we were dependent upon his fidelity,
and therefore more capricious and exacting. He had
been neglected on the one hand, and pampered on the
other. As a soldier, he had in many ways dete-
riorated, but he was not to be regarded only as a

STATE OF THE SEPOPS MIKD.

349

soldier. He was a representative man, tlie emtodi- 1851 - 56 ,
ment of feelings and opinions shared by large classes
of his countrymen, and circumstances might one day
render him their exponent. He had many opportu-
nities of becoming acquainted with passing events and
public opinion. He mixed in cantonments, or on
the line of march, with men of different classes and
different countries ; he corresponded with friends at a
distance ; he heard all the gossip of the Bazaars, and
he read, or heard others read, the strange mixture of
truth and falsehood contained iu the Native new's-
papers. He knew what were the measures of the
British G-ovemment, sometimes even what were its
Lutentions, and he interpreted their meanings, as men
are wont to do, who, credulous and suspicious, see in-
sidious designs and covert dangers in the most bene-
ficent acts. He had not the faculty to conceive that,
the English were continually originating great changes
for the good of the people; our theories of govern-
ment were beyond his understanding, and as he had
ceased to take counsel with his English officer, he was
^ven over to strange delusions, and believed the
most dangerous lies.

But in taking account of the effect produced upon
the Sepoy’s mind by the political and social measures
of the British Government, we must not think only
of the direct action of these measures — of the soldier’s
own reading of distant events, which might have had
no bearing upon his daily happiness, and which, there-
fore, in his selfishness he might have been content to
disregard. For he often read these things with other
men’s eyes, and discerned them with other men’s un-
derstandings. If the political and social revolutions,
of which I have written, did not affect him, they
affected others, wiser in their generation, more astute.

35a

TKE MILITARY SYSTEM OE INDIA.

I85i-.'i8. more designing, who put upon everything that we
did the gloss best calculated to debauch the Sepoy’s
mind, and to prepare him, at a given signal, for an
outburst of sudden madness. Childish, as he was, in
his faith, there was nothing easier than to make him
believe all kinds and conditions of fictions, not only
wild and grotesque in themselves, but in violent con-
tradiction of each other. He was as ready to believe
that the extension of our territory would throw him
out of employment, as that it would inflict upon him
double work. He did not choose between these two
extremes ; he accepted both, and took the one or the
other, as the humour pleased him. There were never
wanting men to feed his imagination with the kind of
aliment which pleased it best, and reason never came
to his aid to purge him of the results of this gross
feeding.

Many were the strange glosses which were given to
the acts of the British Government ; various were the
ingenious fictions woven with the purpose of un-
settling the minds and uprooting the fidelity of the
Sepoy. But diverse as they were in many respects,
there was a certain unity about -them, for they all
tended to persuade him that our measures were di-
rected to one common end, the destruction of Caste,
and the general introduction of Christianity into the
land. If we annexed a province, it was to facilitate
our proselytising operations, and to increase the num-
ber of our converts. Our resumption operations
were instituted for the purpose of destroying all the
religious endowments of the country. Our legislative
enactments were all tending to the same result, the
subversion of Hindooism and Mahomedanism. Our
educational measures were so many direct assaults
upon the religions of the country. Our penal system,

COREtJPTING INFLUENCES.

351

according to their showing, disguised a monstrous
attempt to annihilate caste, by compelling men of all
denominations to feed together in the gaols. In the
Lines of every regiment there were men eager to tell
lies of this kind to the Sepoy, mingled with assurances
that the time was coming when the Feringhees would
be destroyed to a man ; when a new empire would
be established, and a new military system inaugu-
rated, under which the high rank and the higher pay
monopolised by the English would be transferred to
the people of the country. We know so little of what
is stirring in the depths of Indian society ; we dwell
so much apart from the people; we see so little of
them, except in fuU dress and on their best behaviour,
that perilous intrigues and desperate plots might be
woven, under the very shadow of our bungalows,
without our perceiving any symptoms of danger. But
stUl less can we discern that quiet under-current of
hostility which is continually flowing on without any
immediate or definite object, and which, if we could
discern it, would baffle all our eflbrts to trace it to its
source. But it does not the less exist because we are
ignorant of the form which it assumes, or the fount
from which it springs. The men, whose business it
was to corrupt the minds of our Sepoys, were, perhaps,
the agents of some of the old princely houses, which
we had destroyed,* or members of old baronial families
which we had brought to poverty and disgrace. They
were, perhaps, the emissaries of Brahminical Societies,
whose precepts we were turning into foUy, and whose
power we were setting at naught. They were, perhaps,
mere visionaries and enthusiasts, moved only by their

* It was asserted at the time of Southern India, but that there was
the “ Mutiny of Vellore,” that not scarcely a regiment into which they
only were agents of the House of had not enlisted.

Tippoo busy in all the Lines of

1851 . 5 ( 5 .

352

THE MLITAET SYSTEM OE INDIA.

1S51-56.

own disordered imaginations to proclaim tlie coming
of some new prophet or some fresh avatar of the Deity,
and the consequent dbwnfal of Christian supremacy in
the East. But whatsoever the nature of their mission,
and whatsoever the guise they assumed, whether they
appeared in the Lines as passing travellers, as journey-
ing hawkers, as religious mendicants, or as wandering
puppet-showmen, the seed of sedition which they scat-
tered struck root in a soil well prepared to receive it,
and waited only for the ripening sun of circumstance
to develop a harvest of revolt.

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

353

BOOK in.— THE OTJTBEEAK OP THE MUTEST.
[ 1856 - 1857 .]

CHAPTER I.

DEPAMUR^ OB LORD BALHOUSrE — HIS CHARACTER — THE (JCESTIOE OP
SUCCESSION — ARRIVAL OP LORD CANNING — HIS EARLY CAREER — COM
MENCEHENT OP HIS ADMINISTRATION — HIS PELLOW - COUNCILLORS —
GENERAL LOW — MR. DORIN — MR. GRANT— MR. BARNES PEACOCK — THE
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEI.

When, on the last day of February, 1856, “the
Most Noble” the Marquis of Dalhousie placed the
Portfolio of the Indian Empire in the hands of his
successor, all men said that a great statesman and a
great ruler was about to depart from the land. The
praises that were bestowed upon him had been well
earned. He had given his life to the public service ;
and many feared, as they sorrowfully bade him fare-
well, that he had given it up for the public good.

He stood before men at that time as the very em-
bodiment of Success. Whatsoever he had attempted
to do he had done with his whole heart, and he had
perfected it without a failure or a flaw. The policy
which during those eventful eight years had been so
consistently maintained was emphatically his policy.
The success, therefore, was fairly his. No man had
ever stamped his individuality more clearly upon the
public measures of his times. There are periods when
the Government fades into an impersonality; when

2 A

1856.

354

OUTBREAK OR THE MUTINY,

18 ? 6 .

Character
of Lord
Dalliousie.

luen cease to associate its measures with the idea of
one dominant will. But during the reign then ended
we heard little of “ the Government in every one’s
mouth was the name of the individual Man.

And in this remarkable individual manhood there
■was the very essence and concentration of the great
national manhood ; there was an intense Englishism
in him such as has seldom been equalled. It was the
Englishism, too, of the nineteenth century, and of
that particular epoch of the nineteenth century when
weU-nigh every one had the word “ progress” on his
lips, and stagnation was both disaster and disgrace.
A man of strong convictions and extraordinary
activity of mind, he laid fast hold of the one abstract
jtruth t hat English government, English laws, English
learning, English customs, and English manners, are
better than the government, the laws, the learnings
the customs, and the manners of India ; and -with all
the earnestness of his nature and all the strength of
his understanding he ■wrought out this great theory in
practice. He never doubted that it was good alike
for England and for India that the map of the
country which he bad been sent to govern shoTild
present one surface of Red. He was so sure of this,
he believed it so honestly, so conscientiously, that,
courageous and self-reliant as he was, he would have
carried out this policy to the end, if all the chief
ofi5.cers and agents of his government had been
arrayed against him. But he commenced his career
at a time when the ablest of our public functionaries
in India, with a few notable exceptions, had forsaken
the traditions of the old school — ^the school of Mal-
colm, of Elphinstone, and of Metcalfe — and stood
^ger and open-armed to embrace and press closely to
them the very doctrines of which they perceived in

CHARACTER OE LORD DALHOUSIE.

355

Dalhousie so vigorous an exponent. He did not 1856.
found the school ; neither were his opinions moulded
in accordance with its tenets. He appeared among
them and placed himself at their head, just at the
very time when such a coming was needed to give
consistency to their faith, and uniformity to their
works. The coincidence had all the force of a dis-
pensation. No prophet ever had more devoted fol-
lowers. No king was ever more loyally served. For
the strong faith of his disciples made them strive
mightily to accomplish his will ; and he had in a rare
degree the faculty of developing in his agents the
veiy powers which were most essential to the fitting
accomplishment of his work. He did not create those
powers, for he found in his chief agents the instincts
and energies most essential to his purpose ; but he
fostered, he strengthened and directed them, so that
what might have run to weed and waste withou this
cherishing care, yielded under his culture, in ripe pro-
fusion, a harvest of desired results.

As his workmen were admirably suited to his work,
so also was the field, to which he was called, the one
best adapted to the exercise of his peculiar powers.

In no other part of our empire could his rare ad-
ministrative capacity have found such scope for de-
velopment. For he was of an imperious and despotic
nature, not submitting to control, and resenting oppo-
sition ; and in no situation could he have exercised a
larger measure of power in the face of so few consti-
tutional checks. His capacities required free exercise,
and it may be doubted whether they would have been
fully developed by anything short of this absolute
supremacy. But sustained and invigorated by a sense
of enormous power, he worked with all the energies
of a giant. And he was successful beyond all

2 A 2

356

OUTBREAK OE THE MUTINY.

1856. example, so far as success is the full accomplishment
of one’s own desires and intentions. But one fatal
defect in his character tainted the stream of his
policy at the source, and converted into hriUiant
errors some of the most renowned of his achieve-
ments. No man who is not endowed with a compre-
hensive imagination can govern India with success.
Dalhousie had no imagination. Lacking the imagi-
native faculty, men, after long years of experience,
may come to understand the national character ; and
a man of lively imagination, without such experience,
may readily apprehend it after the intercourse of a
few weeks. But in neither way did Dalhousie ever
come to understand the genius of the people among
whom his lot was cast. He had but one idea of them
— an idea of a people habituated to the despotism of
a dominant race. He could not understand the
tenacity of affection with which they clung to their
old traditions. He could not sympathise with the
veneration which they felt for their ancient dynasties.
He could not appreciate their fidelity to the time-
honoured institutions and the immemorial usages of
the land. He had not the faculty to conceive that
men might like their own old ways of government,
with all their imperfections and corruptions about
them, better than our more refined systems. Arguing
all points with the preciseness of a Scotch logician, he
made no allowance for inveterate habits and ingrained
prejudices, and the scales of ignorance before men’s
eyes which wiU not suffer them rightly to discern
between the good and the bad. He could not form a
true dramatic conception of the feelings with which
the representative of a long line of kings may be sup-
posed to regard the sudden extinction of his royal
house by the decree of a stranger and an infidel, or

CHARACTER OF LORD DALHODSIE.

357

tiie bitterness of spirit in wliicb a greybeard chief,
whose family from generation to generation had
enjoyed ancestral powers and privileges, might con-
template his lot when suddenly reduced to poverty
and humiliation by an incursion of aliens of another
colour and another creed. He could not see with
other men’s eyes ; or think with other men’s brains ;
or feel with other men’s hearts. With the charac-
teristic unimaginativeness of his race he could not for
a moment divest himself of his individuality, or con-
ceive the growth of ancestral pride and national
honour in other breasts than those of the CampbeUs
and the Ramsays.

And this egotism was cherished and sustained by
the prevailing sentiments of the new school of Indian
politicians, who, as I have said, laughed to scorn the
doctrines of the men who had built up the great
structure of our Indian Empire, and by the utterances
of a Press, which, with rare ability, expounded the
views of this school, and insisted upon the duty of
universal usurpation. Such, indeed, was the pre-
vailing tone of the majority, in aU ranks from the
highest to the lowe^ that any one who meekly ven-
tured to ask, “ How would you like it yourself?” was
reproached in language little short of that which
might be fitly applied to a renegade or a traitor. Td
suggest that in an Asiatic race there might be a spirit
of independence and a love of country, the manifes-
tations of which were honourable in themselves, how-
ever inconvenient to us, was commonly to evoke as
the very mildest result the imputation of being
“ Anti-Biitish,” whilst sometimes the “true British
feeling” asserted itself in a less refined choice of
epithets, and those who ventured to sympathise in any
way with the people of the East were at once de-

1866.

358

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

1866, nounced as “ white, niggers.” Yet among these very
men, so intolerant of anything approaching the
assertion of a spirit of liberty by an Asiatic people,
there were some who could well appreciate and sym-
pathise with the aspirations of European bondsmen,
and could regard with admiration the struggles of
the Italian, the Switzer, or the Pole to liberate him-
self, by a sanguinary contest, from the yoke of the
usurper. But the sight of the dark skin sealed up
their sympathies. They contended not merely that
the love of country, that the spirit of liberty, as
cherished by European races, is in India wholly un-
known, but that Asiatic nations, and especially the
nations of India, have no right to judge what is best
for themselves ; no right to revolt against the bene-
ficence of a more civilised race of white men, who
would think and act for them, and deprive them, for
their o^vn good, of all their most cherished rights and
their most valued possessions.

So it happened that Lord Dalhousie’s was a strong
Government; strong in everything but its confor-
mity to the genius of the people. It was a Go-
vernment admirably conducted in accordance with
the most approved principles of European civilisation,
by men whose progressive tendencies carried them
hundreds of years in advance of the sluggish Asiatics,
whom they vainly endeavoured to bind to the chariot-
wheels of their refined systems. There was every-
thing to give it complete success but the stubbornness
of the national mind. It failed, perhaps, only because
the people preferred darkness to light, foUy to
wisdom. Of course the English gentlemen were
right and the Asiatics lamentably wrong. But the
grand scriptural warning against putting new wine
into old bottles was disregarded. The wine was good

CHAEACTER OF LORD DALHOUSIE.

359

wine, strong wine; wine to gladden the heart of 1^66
man. But poured into those old bottles it was sure,
sooner or later, to create a general explosion. They
forgot that there were two things necessary to suc-
cessful government : one, that the measures should be
good in themselves ; and the other, that they should be
suited to the condition of the recipients. Intent upon
the one, they forgot the other, and erred upon the
side of a progress too rapid and an Englishism too
refined.

But at the bottom of this great error were benign
intentions. Dalhousie and his lieutenants had a
strong and steadfast faith in the wisdom and bene-
volence of their measures, and strove alike for the
glory of th.e English nation and the welfare of the
Indian people. There was something grand and even
good in the very errors of such a man. For there
was no taint of baseness in them ; no sign of any-
thing sordid or self-seeking. He had given himself
up to the public service, resolute to do a great work,
and he rejoiced with a noble pride in the thought
that he left behind him a mightier empire than he
had found, that he had brought new countries and
strange nations under the sway of the British sceptre,
and sown the seeds of a great civilisation. To do
this, he had made unstinting sacrifice of leisure, ease,
comfort, health, and the dear love of wedded life,
and he carried home with him, m a shattered frame
and a tom heart, in the wreck of a manhood at its
very prime, mortal wounds nobly received in a great
and heroic encounter.

Great always is the interest which attaches to the
question of succession ; greatest of all when such a
ruler as Dalhousie retires from the scene. Who was
to take the place of this great and successful states-

360

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

185G.

Antecedents
of Lord
Canning.

1822.

man ? Wto was to carry out to its final issue the
grand policy wliicli he had so hrilliantly inaugurated ?
This was the question in all men’s mouths as the old
year passed away and the new year dawmed upon
India; in some sort a remarkable year, for was it
not the centenary of the great disaster of the Black
Hole which had brought Clive’s avenging army to
Bengal? Ever at such times is there much talk of
the expected advent of some member of the English
Cabinet, some successful Colonial Governor, or some
great Lord little experienced in statesmanship, of
high lineage and dilapidated fortune. And so now
there was the wonted high tide of speculation and
conjecture, wild guesses and moonshine rumours of
all kinds, from dim possibilities to gigantic nonsenses,
until at last there came authentic tidings to India
that the choice had fallen on Her Majesty’s Post-
master-General, one of the younger members of Lord
Palmerston’s Cabinet.

Scarcely within bounds of possibility was it, that,
in the midst of so great an epidemic of faith in Lord
Dalhousie, England could send forth a statesman to
succeed him, whom her Anglo-Indian sons would not
receive with ominous head-shakings, denoting grave
doubts and anxious misgivings. Another great man,
it was said, was needed to understand, to appreciate,
to maintain the policy of the hero whom they so glori-
fied. But they knew little or nothing of Viscount
Canning, except that he was the bearer of a great
name. Thirty-four years before, all England had
been talkmg about the acceptance of the Governor-
Generalship by this man’s father. There were a

EARLY CAREER OF LORD CANNING. 3Sl

few, then, who, looking at the matter solely from 1866.
an Indian point of view, exulted in the thought that
one who had done such good service at the Board of
Control, and whose abilities were known to be of the
very highest order, was about to devote some of the
best years of his life to the government of our great
Eastern empire. There was another and a baser
few, who, festering with jealousies, and animosities,
and dishonourable fears, joyed most of aU that they
should see his face no more for years, or perhaps for
ever. But the bulk of the English people deplored
his approaching departure from among them, because
they felt that the country had need of his services,
and could ill bear the loss of such a man. And it
was a relief to them when the sad close of Lord
Castlereagh’s career brought George Canning back
from the visit, which was to have been his farewell,
to Liverpool, to take his place again in the great
Council of the nation.

Great, also, was the relief to George Canning
himself — great for many reasons ; the greatest, per-
haps, of all, that he was very happy in his family.

In the first year of the century he had married a
lady, endowed with a considerable share of the
world’s wealth, but with more of that better wealth
which the world cannot give ; the daughter and co-
heiress of an old general ofB.cer named Scott. No
man could have been happier in his domestic life;
and domestic happiness is domestic virtue. Blind to
the attractions of that Society in which he was so
pre-eminently formed to shine, he found measureless
delight in the companionship of his wife and children.

And as an Indian life is more or less a life of separa-
tion, it was now a joy to him -to think that the brief

362

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTEST.

)SS6.

Gloucester
Lodge, 1 822.

1807.

The Putney
School,

■s-ision of Government House, Calcutta, had been re-
placed by the returning realities of the English fire-
side.*

At this time the great statesman had a son in his
tenth year, at school with Mr. Carmalt, of Putney,
on the banks of the Thames. He was the third son
bom to George Canning born during what was
perhaps the happiest period of his father’s life, his
residence at Gloucester Lodge. This was the boy’s
birthplace. Lying between Brompton and Kensing-
ton, it was at that time almost in the country. There
was not, perhaps, a pleasanter place near Town. It
had a strange, memorable history, too, and it was
among the notabilities of suburban London. In the
days of Ranelagh, it had been, under the name of
the Florida Gardens, a lesser , rival to that fashionable
haunt ; and from this state, after an interval of de-
sertion and decay, it had developed into a royal
residence.^ The Duchess of Gloucester bought the
Gardens, built there a handsome Italian villa, lived
and died there, and, passing away, bequeathed her
interest in the estate to tlie Princess Sophia, who
sold it to Mr. Canning. And there, in this pleasant
umbrageous, retreat, on the 14th , of December, 1812,
was born the third son of George Canning, who, in
due course, was christened Charles John.

In 1822, as I have said, when George Canning

* “The unsullied purity of Mr. f At this time Charles was the
Canning’s domestic life,” says his second surviving son. The eldest,
last and pleasantest biographer, “ and George Charles, born in April, 1801,
his love of domestic pleasures (for died in March, 1820. The second
after his^ marriage he seldom ex- brother was in the navy,
tended his intercourse with general $ See Bell’s Life of Canning,
society beyond those occasions which chapter x., which contains an ani-
his station rendered unavoidable), mated sketch of the early hisloiy of
were rewarded by as much virtue Gloucester Lodge, and of the social
and devotion as ever graced the and domestic environments of the
Lome of an English statesman.”— great statesman’s residence there.
Belh Life of Canning.

EARLY CAREER OE LORD CANNING.

363

woke from his brief dream of Indian vice-regal power 1856 .
to take the seals of the Foreign OfiS^ce, this boy
Charles was under the scholastic care of Mr. Carmalt,
of Putney. In those days his establishment enjoyed
a great reputation. It was one of the largest and
best private schools in the neighbourhood of London,
perhaps in the whole kingdom, and as the sons of our
highest noblemen mingled there with those of our
middle-class gentry, not a bad half-way house to the
microcosm of Eton or Harrow. The impression which
Charles Canning made upon the minds of his school-
fellows was, on the whole, a favourable one. He was
not a boy of brilliant parts, or of any large popu-
larity; but he was remembered long afterwards as
one who, in a quiet, unostentatious way, made it
manifest to ordinary observers that there was, in
schoolboy language, “ something in him.” One,
whose letter is now before me, and who was with
him for nearly two years in the same room at the
Putney school, remembered, after a lapse of more
than a third part of a century, the admiration with
which he then regarded young Canning’s “ youthful
indications of talent, and amiable and attractive
manners.”

Two years after George Canning’s surrender of the Etou
Governor-Generalship, his son Charles left Mr. Car-
malt’s and went to Eton. Eton was very proud of the
father’s great reputation, and eager to embrace the
son ; for, verily, George Canning had been an Etonian
of Etonians, and had done as much, as a scholar and
a wit, to make Eton flourish, as any man of his age.

It was, perhaps, therefore, in a spirit of pure grati-
tude and veneration, and with no “hope of future
favours,” that worthy Provost GoodaU, than whom
perhaps no man ever had a keener appreciation both

364

OUTBEEAK OF IHE MUTINY.

1856.

of scholarship and of wit, on intimation made to him
that George Canning wished his son to be entered as
an oppidan, sent Mr. Chapman, one of the masters of
the school,* who had been selected as the boy’s tutor,
to examine him at Gloucester Lodge. These exami-
nations, which determine the place in the school
which the boy is to take, are commonly held in the
tutor’s house at Eton, not beneath the parental roof.
But the Minister’s son was examined in his father’s
library and in his father’s presence at Gloucester
Lodge ; a double trial, it may be thought, of the
young student’s nerve, and not provocative of a suc-
cessful display of scholarship. But it was success-
ful.t Charles Canning was declared to be fit for the
fourth form, and on the 4th of September, 1824, he
commenced his career. It is on record that he was
“ sent up for good” for his proficiency in Latin verse.
It is on record, also, if the recording minister at
, Eton does not kindly blot out such traces of boyish
error, that he was also sent up for bad ; in more cor-
rect Etonian phraseology, “in the biU,” marked for
the flogging block. And it is traditional that the
avenging hand of Head-master Keate was sometimes
stayed by a tender reluctance to apply the birch to
the person of Secretary Canning’s son. On the whole,
perhaps, it is historically true that, at Eton, he had
no very marked reputation of any kind. He was
good-looking, and a gentleman, which goes for some-
thing ; but I do not know that he was a great rower,

* Afterwards Bishop of Colombo ; his proficiency, and the Bishop now
now retired. remembers the anxiety with wliicli

f lam indebted for this incident the father watched the essay of his
to Sir Kobert Phillimore, Queen’s son, and the smile of approval which
Advocate. The memorandum from greeted his reading of the rather dif-
which it is taken adds : " The .well- ticult transition, * Quos ego — sed
known description of the atorm in motos,’ &c., and the final ‘Not so
the first .^Eneid, ‘ Iiiterea magno bad,’ which followed at the close of
misceri iimrmure pontum,’ &c., was the whole translation.”
tlie passage chosen for the trial of

EAKLT CAEEEE OF LOED CANNING.

365

a great cricketer, or a great swimmer, or was in any 1S56.
sense an athlete of the first water and the admira-
tion of his companions ; and, scholastically, it is re-
membered of him that he had “ a reputation rather
for intelligence, accuracy, and painstaking, than for
refined scholarship, or any remarkable powers of
composition.”

But on passing away from Eton, the stature of his
mind wms soon greatly enlarged. At the close of
1827, having risen to the Upper division of the fifth
form, he received the parting gifts of his school-
fellows ; and soon afterwards became the private
pupil of the Rev. John Shore, a nephew of Sir John
Shore, Governor-General of India, and known to a
later generation as Lord Teignmouth. This worthy
Christian gentleman and ripe scholar lived, but with-
out Church preferment, at Potton, a quiet little
market-to-svn in Bedfordshire, receiving pupils there
of the better sort. Among the inmates of his house
was the grandson of the first Lord Harris, with whom
Charles Canning entered into bonds of friendship,
riveted at Oxford, strengthened in public life at
home, and again by strange coincidence in India,
and broken only by death. Here, doubtless, he
made great progress in scholarship. Perhaps the
death of his father, and the after-honours which Ausust 8,
were conferred on the family, and, more than all, the
subsequent calamitous end of his elder brother,*
awakened within him a sense of the responsibilities
of his position, and roused him to new exertions.

Though bom the third in succession of George Can-
ning’s sons, he was now the eldest, the only one. He
and his sister alone survived. He was now the heir
to a peerage, sufliciently, though not splendidly, en-

* WUliam Pitt Cannin*?, then a drowned while bathing at Madeira,

Ca^^tain in the Rojal Navy, was in September, 1828.

366

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

185C. dowed, and there was a public career before him.

He applied himself to his books.*

Oxford. His next step was to the University. In Decem-
ber, 1828, he was entered on the roll as a Student of
Christ Church, Oxford, as his father had been en-
tered just forty years before. Among the fore-
most of his fellow-students were Mr. Gladstone, Mr.
Bruce, and Mr. Robert Phillimore,f all of whom
lived to take parts, more or less prominent, in public
affairs. Among other members of the same distin-
guished house, at that time, was the young Lord
Lincoln, heir to the Dukedom of Newcastle, and the
representative of the great Scotch House of Ramsay,
ennobled by the Earldom of Dalhousie. But the
most intimate of all his associates was the present
Lord De Tabley, with whom he lived in the closest
bonds of friendship to the latest day of his life. By
him, and a few other chosen companions, he was
dearly loved and much respected ; but neither achiev-
ing nor seeking extensive popularity among his co-
temporaries, he was regarded by the outer University
world as a man of a reserved and distant manner,
and of a somewhat cold and unimpulsive tempera-
ment. The few in the inner circle knew that he was
not cold ; knew that he had a true loving heart, very
loyal and constant in its affections ; knew that in the
society of his familiar friends he had a pleasant, a
genial, and sometimes a playful manner, that he had
a fine scholarly taste, a fund of quiet humour, a keen
appreciation of character, and that he was all in all a
delightful companion. They had great hope, too, of
his future career, though he did not seem to be ambi-

* It ne^ scarcely be indicated f The present (1864) Chancellor
that the widow of George Canning, of the Exchequer ; the late Lord
on his death, was created a Yis- Elgin, Governor- General of India;
countess, with remainder to his eldest and the present Queen’s Advocate,
son.

EARLY CAREER OE LORD CANNING.

367

tious; nay, rather, it appeared to those who closely ]856.
observed him, that he was haunted and held back by
the thought of his father’s renown, and a diffidence ol
his own capacity to maintain the glories of the name.

But, although he did not care to take part in the
proceedings of debating societies, and, apparently,
took small interest in the politics of the great world,
he was anxious that at least his University career
should do no dishonour to his lineage, and that if he
could not be a great statesman, he might not stain
the scholarly reputation enjoyed by two generations
of Cannings before him. He strove, therefore, and
with good results, to perfect himself in the classic
languages ; and even more assiduous were his endea-
vours to obtain a mastery over his own language.

At an early age he acquired a thoroughly good Eng-
lish style ; not resonant or pretentious ; not splintery
or smart ; but pure, fluent, transparent, with the
meaning ever visible beneath it, as pebbles beneatn
the clearest stream.

His efibrts bore good fruit. In 1831, he wrote a
Latin Prize Poem, on the “ Captivity of Caractacus C
and recited it in the great hall of Christ Church,
standing beneath his father’s picture.* And in the

^ I am indebted for this to Sir in the prime of youth, recalling by
Robert Phillimore. I give the inci- his eminently handsome countenance
dent in his own words : “ In the the noble features of the portrait,
year 1831, he won the Christ Church while repeating the classical prize
prize for Latin verse. The subject poem, which would have gladdened
was ‘ Caractacus Captivus Romani in- his father’s heart. Genermly speak-
greditur.’ The verses were, as usual, ing, the resident members of Christ
recited in the hall. It was a remark- Cfcurch alone compose the audience
able scene. In that magnificent when the prize poem is recited. But
banqueting-room are hung the por- on this occasion there was a stranger
traits of students who have reflected present — the old faithful friend of
honour upon the House which reared Mr. Canning, his staunch political
them by the distinctions which they adherent through life — Mr. oturgea
have won in after life. Underneath Bourne. He had travelled froai,
the portrait of George Canning, the London for the purpose of witness-
recollection of whose brilliant career ing the first considerable achiev
and untimely end was still fresh in ment of the younger Canning.’"*
the memory of men, stood the son, MS* Mmora?tdum,

368

OUTBREAK OP THE MUTINT.

1856 . Easter term of 1833 he took his degree, with high
honours: a first class in Classics, and a second in
Mathematics. He was then in his twenty-first year ;
and Parliament would soon he open to him. But he
was in no hurry to enter upon the realities of public
hfe. He was diffident of his oratorical powers ; he
was constitutionally shy; and it did not appear to
him that the House of Commons was a theatre in
which he was ever likely to make a successful ap-
pearance. Moreover, he had other work in hand at
that time ; other yearnings to keep down any young
ambitions that might be mounting within him. Love
and courtship fiUed up a sweet interlude in his life,
as they do in the lives of most men whose story is
worth telling ; and, in due course, they bore the rich
fruit of happy wedlock. On the 5th of September,
1835, the Honourable Charles John Canning espoused
the Honourable Charlotte Stuart, eldest daughter of
Lord Stuart De Rothesay; a lady of a serene and
gentle beauty, and many rare gifts of mind.

But, after a year of wedded life, he was prevailed
upon to enter Parliament ; and in August, 1836, he
was returned for Warwick. In that month, however,
Parliament was prorogued; and on its reassembling
at the commencement of the following year he was
content to be a silent member. His opportunities,
indeed, were very few, for his whole career in the
House of Commons extended over a period of little
more than six weeks. During the month of February
and the early part of March he attended in his place
with praiseworthy regularity.* But, on the 15th of
the latter month,, his mother. Viscountess Canning,
died ; and, on the 24th of AprQ, he took his seat in
the House of Lords.

* His name is to be found in all Government, but more frequently
tbe principal division lists. He voted vitli it. ‘ '

sometimes against Lord Melbounie’s

EAELY CAREER OF LORD C.UfNING.

369

For nearly twenty years lie sate in that House, 1830-58.
taking no very prominent part in the debates, but
doing his duty in a quiet, unostentatious way, and
gradually making for himself a reputation as a con-
scientious, painstaking young statesman, who might
some day do good service to his country and honour
-to his great name. His political opinions, which
were shared by most of hb distinguished cotempo-
raries at Christ Church, were characterised by that
chastened liberalism which had found its chief ex-
ponent in Sir Robert Peel ; and when, in 1841, that
great Parliamentary leader was invited to form a
Ministry, Lord Canning, Lord Lincoln, and Mr.
Gladstone were offered, and accepted, official seats.

The seals of the Foreign Office had been placed in
the hands of Lord Aberdeen. He had a high opi-
nion of, and a personal regard for, Lord Canning,
and there was no one whom the veteran statesman
wished so much to associate with himself in office as
George Canning’s son. About the same time another
distinguished member of the House of Lords was also
moved by a strong desire to have the benefit of the
young statesman’s official co-operation and personal
companionship. This ivas Lord Ellenborough, who,
on the formation of the Peel Ministry, had been ap-
pointed President of the Board of Control, but who
had subsequently been selected to succeed Lord Auck-
land as Governor-General of India. He offered to
take Canning with him in the capacity of Private
Secretary.

Creditable as this offer was to the discernment of
Lord Ellenborough, and made in perfect sincerity, it
was one little likely to be accepted by a man of high
social position, good political prospects, and a suffi-
cient supply of the world’s wealth. Lord Canning

2 B

S70

. OTJTBEEAK OF THE MITTIKT.

1886-50. elected to remain in England, and entered official life
as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He
liked Ms work ; he did it well ; and he had the entire
confidence of his chief. But he did not take an active
part in the debates and discussions of the House of
Lords. The presence, in the same Chamber, of the
Chief of his Department relieved him from the rfr
sponsibility of ministerial explanations and replies,
and his constitutional reserve forbade all unnecessary
displays. It was not, indeed, until the Session of
1846 found him in the office of Chief Commissioner
of Woods and Forests, that he took any prominent
part in the business of the House. If the position
which he then held afforded no opportunity for the
development of his powers either as an orator or a
debater, it kept him continually in Parliamentary
harness, and the training was of service to him. It
lasted, however, but a little time. At the end of
June, 1846, Sir Robert Peel and his colleagues re-
signed; and a Whig Cabinet was formed under the
leadership of Lord John RusseU.

Lord Canning was then “ in opposition but, in
heart, he was a Liberal, and willing to support
liberal measures, without reference to the distinc-
tions of party. When, therefore, in May, 1848,
Lord Lansdowne moved the second reading of the
Jewish Disabilities BiU, Lord Canning was the first
to speak in support of it. He answered Lord Ellen-
borough, who had moved the amendment, and he
voted against all his old colleagues then in the Upper
House, with the exception of Lord Hardinge. But
in 1850 he supported, in a speech displaying an entire
mastery of the subject, the resolution of Lord Derby
condemnatory of the Foreign Policy of Lord Pal-
merston ; and he spoke agaiust the Ecclesiastical
Titles Bill, introduced by Lord John Russell. So

EARLY CAREER OP LORD CANNING. §71

little, indeed, was he considered to be pledged to any
party, that when the Russell Cabinet resigned in the
spring of 1851, and Lord Derby was invited to form
an administration, the great Conservative leader saw
no reason w'hy he should not invite Canning to be-
come a member of it. The ofFer then made was a
tempting one, for it was the otfer of a seat in the
Cabinet second in importance only to that of the
Firat Minister. To the son of George Canning it
was especially tempting, for it was the offer of the
seals of the Foreign Office. In that office the father
had built up his reputation, and the son had already
laid the foundation of an honourable career of states-
manship. It was the department which, above all
others. Lord Canning best knew and most desired.
He had served a long apprenticeship in it, and if his
humility suggested any doubts of his capacity to
direct its affairs, they must have been removed by
the manner in which he was invited, to take their
direction.

The offer now made to him was made through his
old official chief,. Lord Aberdeen, who pressed him to
accept it. But there were many grave considerations
which caused him to hesitate. He had sat for some
years on the same ministerial bench with Lord
Derby, but the latter had separated himself from his
party, and the cause of the disruption was the liberal
commercial policy of Sir Robert Peel, in favour of
which Canning had freely declared his opinions. He-
had condemned the foreign policy of the Whig party ;
but, on the other hand, there were matters of home ,
government, in which his liberality was far in ad-
vance of the opinions of Lord Derby and his col-
leagues ; and, on the whole, he felt that he' could not|
honestly and‘ consistently support the Administration',

2 B 2

183fl-5a

372

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

1836-56. wLicli Tie was invited to enter. He judged riglitly,
and in such a case he judged wisely. Lord Derby
failed to construct a Ministry, and the Whigs re-
sumed of&ce for another year. This was the turning-
point of Lord Canning’s career ; and it is impossible
to say how different might have been the story which
I am now about to write, if these overtures had been
accepted.

In the following year, Lord Derby again endea-
voured, and with better success, to form a Ministry,
but its career was of brief duration. In November,
its place was tilled by an Administration under the
premiership of Lord Aberdeen, composed of the lead-
ing members of the Governments both of Sir Robert
Peel and Lord John Russell. In this Coalition
Ministry Lord Canning held the office of Postmaster-
General. Though held by many a distinguished
man, the post was not one to satisfy the desires of an
ambitious one. But he was not disappointed or dis-
couraged. He knew the difficulties which lay in the
path of his leader,* and he addressed himself cheer-
fully and assiduously to his work, Muth a steadfast
resolution to elevate the importance of the appoint-
ment he held, by doing in it the largest possible
amount of public good. In this office he had first
an opportunity of displaying that high conscientious
courage which bears up and steers right on, in spite
of the penalties and mortifications of temporary un-
popularity. What Avas Avrong he endeavoured to set
right ; and knoAving hoAV much depended on the per-
sonal exertions of individual men, he strove, even

' ♦ In a “ coalition ministry” tliere arranprements tlien made the seals of
is necessarily an exceptional number the Poi-eign Office fell, in the first
of claimants for the higher offices instance, to Lord John Russell,
with seats in the Cabinet. In the

EARLY CAREER OF LORD CANNING.

373

at the expense of certain very clamorous vested inte- 1S36-66.
rests, to obtain the utmost possible amount of com-
petency for the performance of all the higher depart-
mental duties. During his administration of the
Post-office many important reforms were instituted,
and much progress made in good work already com-
menced. So effectually, indeed, had he mastered all
the complicated details of the department, that when
the Coalition Ministry was dissolved and a new Go-
vernment formed under Lord Palmerston, the public
interests required that there should be no change at
the Post-office ; so Lord Canning was reappointed to
his old office, but with further acknowledgment of
his good services in the shape of a seat in the Cabinet.

But it was not ordered that he should hold the office
much longer. There was more stirring work in store
for him. His old friend and cotemporary. Lord Dal-
housie, was coming home from India, and it was
necessary that a new Governor-General should be
appointed in his place. Practically the selection, in
such cases, was made by the Imperial Government,
but constitutionally the appointment emanated from
the East India Company. The President of the
Board of Control and the Chairman of the Court
of Directors commonly took counsel together, when
the Cabinet had chosen their man; and then the
nomination was formally submitted to the Court.

There is always, in such cases, much internal doubt
and conflict among those with whom the selection
rests, and much speculation and discussion in the
outer world. It was believed in this instance, that
some member of the Ministry would be appointed ;
but people said in England, as they said in India,
that it would be no easy thing to find a fit successor
for Lord Dalhousie ; and when at last it transpired'

374

OUTBEEAK OF THE MUTINT.

1865-56. that the choice had fallen on Lord Canning, men
■shook their heads and asked each other whether there
-was anything great about him but his name. In
■Parliament the propriety of the appointment was
questioned by some noisy speakers, and there was a
general feeling in society that the appointment was
rather a mistake. But those who knew Lord Can-
ning — ^those especially who had worked with him —
knew that it was no mistake. They knew that there
was the stutf in him of which great administrators
are made.

Appointment On the first day of August a Court of Directors
nor-Ge^ir" India House, and Lord Canning was

bhip, 1855. introduced to take the accustomed oath. On the
evening of that day the Company gave, in honour of
their new servant, one of those magnificent enter-
tainments at which it was their wont to bid God-
speed to those who were going forth to do their work.
Those banquets were great facts and great oppor-
tunities. It was discovered soon afterwards that the
expenditure upon them was a profligate waste of the
public money. But the Government of a great em-
pire, spending nothing upon the splendid foppery of
a Court, was justified in thinking that, without
offence, it might thus do honour to its more distin-
guished servants, and that, not the turtle and the
venison, but the hospitality and the courtesy of the
Directors, thus publicly bestowed upon the men who
had done their work well in civil or military life,
would find ample recompense in increased loyalty
and devotion, and more energetic service. Many a
gallant soldier and many a wise administrator carried
back with him to India the big card of the East
India Company inviting him to dinner at the London
Tavern, and religiously preserved it as one of the

THE EAEE¥BLL BINQUEI.

375

most cherished records of an hohourahle" career. 1S55-56.
There were many, too,' who hoarded among their
dearest recollections the memory of the evening when
they saw, perhaps for the first and the last time,
England’s greatest statesmen and warriors, and heard
‘them gravely discourse on the marvel and the miracle
of our Indian Empire. Nor was it a small thing
that a man selected to govern a magnificent de-
pendency beyond the seas, should thus, in the pre-
sence of his old and his new masters, and many of
his coadjutors in the great worh before him, publicly
accept his commission, and declare to the people in
the West and in the East the principles which were
to regulate his conduct and to shape his career. The
words uttered on these occasions rose far above the
ordinary convivial level of after-dinner speeches.

There was a gravity and solemnity in them, appre-
ciated not merely by those who heard them spoken;
but by thousands also, to. whom the Press conveyed
them, in the country which they most concerned;
and on the minds of the more intelligent Natives the
fact of this grand ceremonial of departure made a
deep impression, and elevated in their imaginations
the dignity of the coming ruler.

Seldom or never had this ceremonial assumed a
more imposing character than that which celebrated
the appointment of Lord Canning to the Governor-
Generalship of India. In the great Banqueting HaU
of the London Tavern were assembled on that 1st
of August many members of the Cabinet, including
among them some of Canning’s dearest friends ; others
besides of his old companions and fellow-students;
and all the most distinguished of the servants of the
Company at that time in the country. Mr. Elliot
Macnaghten, Chairman of the East India Company,

376

ODIBREiK or THE MUTINY.

1S55-56. .presided, and after dinner proposed the accustomed
■toasts. It was natural and' right that, when doing
honour to the newly-appointed Governor-General, the
speaker should pay a fitting tribute to the distin-
•guished statesman who was then bringing his work
to a close ; it was natural and graceful that tribute
should be paid also to the worth of the elder Canning,
who had done India good ser'vice at home, and had
■been selected to hold the great of&ce abroad which
his son was proceeding to fill ; but there was some-
thing to a comparatively untried man perilous in
such associations, and the younger Canning, with
instinctive modesty, shrunk from the invidious sug-
gestion. Perhaps there were some present who drew
comparisons, tmfavourable to the son, between the
early careers of the two Cannings, which had entitled
them to this great distinction ; but when the younger
stood up . to speak, every one was struck — the many
judging by busts and pictures, and the few recaUing
the living likeness of George Canning — by his great
resemblance to his father. The singularly handsome
face, the intellectual countenance, and, above all, the
noble “ Canning brow,” like a block of white marble,
bespoke no common capacity for empire, and gave
emphatic force to the words he uttered. He said,
after the usual expression of thanks for the kind
words spoken, and the kind reception accorded to
them, that the kindness which he had received had
not created any delusion in his mind, for whether he
contemplated the magnitude of the task that awaited
him, or the great achievements of the distinguished
men who had preceded him, he was painfully sensible
that the labourer was unequal to the great work that
had been entrusted to his hands. He was not
ashamed to confess that there were times when he

. THE FAREWELL BANQUET,

377

■was tempted to shrink from the responsibility that ,1855-56.
awaited him. But this feeling, he added, was not
inconsistent with his determination to devote all the
energies of his mind, every hour, nay, every minute
of his time, every thought and every inspiration, to
the discharge of the duties which he had that day ac-
cepted from the hands of the Company. There were,
however, other considerations, which had greatly re-
assured and encouraged him : “ You have,” he said,
turning to the Chairman, “ assured me, this day, of
what you rightly describe as the generous con-fidence
and co-operation of the Court of Directors. I thank
you for that assurance, and I rely on it implicitly,
for I know that the body of which you are the head
-are, wherever they bestow their confidence, no nig-
gards in supporting those who honestly and faith-
fully serve them.” And then, not perhaps without a
knowledge of what, more than a quarter of a century
before, his father had said on a similar occasion,* he
added, “I feel that I can also rely on the cordial
support and sympathy of my noble friend at the head
•of the Government, and of all those colleagues with
whom I have had the proud satisfaction of serving as
•a Minister of the Crown, but, above all, I delight in
the co-operation — ^for on that I must daily and hourly
rely — of those two admirable bodies, the Civil Service
and the Army of India. I hardly know whether
there is any feature of our Government, any portion
of our institutions, upon which Englishmen may look
with more honest exultation than those two noble

* The occasion alluded to was the rope tlie existence of any monarchy
farewell banquet given by the East which, within a given time, has pro-
India Company to Sir John Malcolm, diiced so many men of the first
on his appointment to the govern- talents, in civil and military life, as
ment of Bombay. Then it was that India has first trained for herself,

George Canning said : ‘‘ There can- and then given to their native
not be found in the history of En- country/’

378

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTIXT.

1655-56. branches of our Public Service. The men of those
branches have done much for the advancement of
India, and have sent forth from their ranks men who
were eflS.cient in war and peace, in numbers of which
any monarchy in Europe might be proud, and who
have rescued their countrymen from charges formerly,
land not unjustly, levelled against them of dealing
■sometimes too harshly with those whom they were
bound to succour and protect. Sir, it is the posses-
sion of such men which enables you to exhibit a
spectacle unequalled in the world’s history— that of
a hundred and fifty millions of people submitting in
peace and contentment, in a country teeming with
wealth, to the government of strangers and aliens.”

Then, after a few more words on the high charac-
ter of the- Services, and a brief declaration of the fact
that he assumed office without a single promise or
pledge to any expectant,” he proceeded with increased
•gravity and solemnity of utterance, almost, indeed,
as one under the spell of prophecy : “ I know not
what course events may take. I hope and pray that
we may not reach the extremity of war. I wish for
a peaceful time of. office, but I cannot forget that in
our Indian Empire that greatest of all blessings de-
pends upon a greater variety of chances and a more
precarious tenure than in any other quarter of the
globe. We must not forget that in the sky of India,
serene as it is, a small cloud may arise, at first no
bigger than a man’s hand, but which, growing larger
and larger, may at last threaten to burst, and over-
whelm us with ruin. What has happened once may
happen again. The disturbing causes have diminished
.certainly, but they are not dbpelled. We have still
discontented and heterogeneous peoples united under
our sway ; we have stUl neighbours before whom we

THE FAREWELL BAX-QUET.

879

cannot altogether lay aside our watchfulness ; and we ls'55-56;
have a frontier configuration that renders it possible
that in any quarter, at any moment, causes of colli-
sion may arise. Besides, so intricate are our relations
with some subsidiary states, that I doubt whether in
an empire so vast and so situated it is in the power
of the wisest Government, the most peaceful and the
most forbearing, to command peace. But if we can»
not command, we can at least deserve it, by taking
care that honour, good faith, and fair dealing are on
our side ; and then if, in spite of us, it should become
necessary to strike a blow, w'e can strike with a clear
conscience. With blows so dealt the struggle must
be short and the issue not doubtful. But I gladly
dismiss from my mind apprehensions that may not
be realised, and joyfully recognise a large arena of
peaceful usefulness, in which I hope for your kind
assistance and co-operation.”

- Equally surprised were the few then present, who
were familiar with Lord Canning’s parliamentary
utterances, and the many, who had never heard him
speak, but had been told that he was “ no orator
for the speech which they now heard from his lips
was all that such a speech ought to have been. It was
impressive rather than impassioned; slowly .spoken,
with a deliberate gravity, every sentence making
itself felt, and every word making itself heard in the
farthest comers of that great Banqueting HaU.

There were few present in whose estimation the
speaker had not risen before he resumed his seat;
few present who did not, years afterwards, remember
with strong emotion that picture of the little cloud
rising in an unexpected quarter, and in time obscur-
ing the firmament and overshadowing the land.

Some, perhaps, thought also of another speech, theti

380

OUTBEEAK OF THE MUTINT.

1855 - 56 .

delivered by a more practised speaker ; for the First
Minister of the Crown, on that August evening, let
fall some memorable words. It was only in common
course that he should speak of the qualifications of
his colleague for the high office to which he had been
appointed; only in common course that he should
express his gratitude to the Company who so mate-
rially lightened the cares of the Sovereign and her
Ministers. But when Lord Palmerston dwelt on
“ the significant fact that, whereas of old all civilisa-
tion came from India, through Egypt, now we, who
were then barbarians, were carrying back civilisation
and enlightenment to the parent source,” and added,
“ perhaps it might be our lot to confer on the count-
less millions of India a higher and a holier gift than
any real human knowledge; but that must be left
to the hands of time and the gradual improvement
of the people,” he supplemented Lord Canning’s pro-,
phecy, though he knew it not, and pointed to the
quarter from which the little cloud was to arise.

But although Lord Canning had been sworn in at
the India House, and had stood before the magnates
of the land as Governor-General elect, he was stiU a
member of the Cabinet and her Majesty’s Postmaster-
General. Parliament was prorogued on the 14th of
August, and in accordance with that wise official
usage, which recognises the necessity of holidays no
less for statesmen than for schoolboys, the Queen’s
Ministers dispersed themselves over the country, and
Lord Canning went to Scotland. It had been settled
that he should receive from the hands of Lord Dal-
housie the reins of Indian Government on the 1st of
February, 1856, and his arrangements, involving a
short sojourn in Egypt, and visits to Ceylon, Bombaj'-,
and Madras, had been made with a view to his arrival

THE DATE OF SUCCESSION.

381

at Calcutta on that day. But at Dalhousie’s own re-
quest, his resignation was subsequently deferred to the
1st of March. When this request was first made to
him, Canning thought that the intention of the change
was simply to allow the old Governor-General more
time not only to consummate the annexation of Oude,
hut to confront the first difficulties of the revolution ;
and it appeared to him, thinking this, that the post-
ponement might be interpreted alike to his own and
to his predecessor’s disadvantage. It might have been
said that the new Governor-General shrank from en-
countering the dangers of the position, or that the
measure was so distasteful to him, on the score of its
injustice, that he could not bring himself to put his
hand to the work. Both assumptions would have
been utterly erroneous. The question of the Annexa-
tion of Oude had been a Cabinet question, and as a
member of the Cabmet, Lord Canning had given his
assent to the policy, which, after much discussion in
Leadenhall and in Downing-street, found final expres-
sion in the Court’s despatch of the 1 9th of November.
The policy itself had been already determined, al-
though the precise terms of the instructions to be sent
to the Government of India were still under conside-
ration, when Dalhousie’s proposal reached him ; and
he was willing to accept all the responsibilities of the
measure. The proposed delay, therefore, did not at
first sight please him ; but when, from a later letter,
he learnt that Dalhousie required a few more weeks of
office, not for special, but for general purposes ; that
he needed time to gather up the ends of a large
number of administrative details, the case was altered,
and he assented, -with the concurrence of the Court of
Directors, to the change.*

• “ As long,” be wrote to the Chairman, “ as it turned upon Oude

1855-50.

382

OUTBREAK OP THE MUTINY.

1855-5fi(. A few dayS' afterwards, Lord Canning turned his
face again towards the South, to superintend the final
arrangeinents for his departure, and to take leave of
Ms friends. Thus the month of October and the'
greater part of November were passed ; but not with-
out some study of Indian questions, some useful train-
ing for the great work upon which he was about to
enter. On the 21st of November he went by com-
mand to Windsor, accompanied by Lady Canning,
who was among her Majesty’s cherished friends, and
on the 23rd returned to London, after taking final
leave of the Queen. Another day or two, and he had,
commenced his overland journey to the East. From-
the French capital he wrote, on the last day of No-
vember : “ I intended to leave Paris this afternoon,
but I received notice in the morning that the Emperor
wished to see me to-morrow, so that it will be Tuesday
morning (December 4th) before we embark at Mar-
seilles-. We still hope to reach Alexandria on the
10th.” He arrived there, however, not before the
12th, and after a day’s halt pushed on to Cairo,
where he was received and entertained magnificently
by orders of the Pacha, who was at that time absent-
from his capital.

The party consisted of Lord and Lady Canning,
his nephew Lord Hubert de Burgh,* Captain Bou-

alone, I felt iliat tliere was some will be agreeable and convenient to
difficulty in making the change pro- him, and probably advantageous to
posed by Lord Dalhousie, and some the publie^interests. I hope, there-
risk of its intention being misrepre- fore, that you will feel no difficulty
^nted to the disadvantage of both' in complying until Lord Dalhousie’s
.of us. But it is now clear that for wish, by’ putting off iny succession
other reasons, apart from Oude, and until the day he names
for the general winding up of the Canning to Mr. Macnaghten, Sep-
work on his hands, it will be a great teniber 20, 1855. — MS. Correspond-
help to him to have a month more ence,

time. These are his very words to * Afterwards Lord Hubert Can*
me ; and I cannot hesitate, so far as ning,

1 am concerned, to do that which

LORD mTfIKG IN EGYPT.

383

verie, A.D.C., and Dr. Leckie. There was abundant 1S55-5S
time for an exploration of tlie -wonders of Eg 3 rpt, and,
as the fine climate of the country invited a protracted
sojourn there, it was arranged that some weeks should
he spent in pleasant and profitable excursions, and
that they should embark at Suez about the middle of
the month of January. “ The Pacha was in. Upper
Egypt until to-day,” wrote Lord Canning to Mr.
Macnaghten, on the 17th of December, “when he
returned to this neighbourhood. I am to see bins
to-morrow, and on the following day we set out on
our expedition up the Mle. Thanks to a steamer^
which the Pacha lends- us, we shall be able to accom-
plish all we wish, and to embark on the Feroze imme-
diately upon its arrival at Suez, which, according to
a letter from Lord Dalhousie, that met me at Alex-
andria, will not be until close upon the 12th of
January. . . . The magnificence, not to say extrava-
gance, of our reception here far exceeds anything
that I had expected. I shall need to be very profuse
of my thanks to the Pacha to-morrow.”

It would be pleasant to follow Lord Canning and
his family on their river-voyage, the grateful ex-
periences of which he has himself recorded, but these,
personal incidents have no connexion with the stern
story before me, and the temptation, therefore, to
enlarge upon them must be resisted. The programme
of his movements given in the above letter to the
Chairman of the Company, was realised with but
little departure from the original design. The Go-
vernor-General elect halted at Aden, where, under
the guidance of Brigadier Coghlan* — an officer of
the Company’s Artillery, one of those excellent

* Afterwards Sir William Coglilan, Iv.CJB.

38i

OUTBEEIK OF THE MUTINY.

1856. public servants who, partly in a military, partly
in a diplomatic capacity, represent great interests and
undertake great responsibilities in the East — ^Loro
Canning made his first acquaintance with the Sepoj
Army of India. From Aden he steamed to Bombay,
where he arrived on the 28th of January, 1856, and
first planted his foot on Indian soil. “ I found,” he
%vrote to Mr. Macnaghten on the 2nd of February,
“ that Lord Daihousie had given orders that I should
be received with the full honours of Governor-General
in possession ; and of course I did nothing to check or
escape from the demonstrations with which we were
met, though I did not desire or expect them. I have
been unceasingly busy for two-thirds of every twenty-
four hours since our arrival ; and by the 5th or 6th,
I hope to have seen nearly all that calls for ocular in-
spection in the city and its neighbourhood. We shall
then embark for Madras; for I have given up all
thoughts of stopping at Ceylon, unless to coal, and
hope to arrive there on the 14th or 15th. I cannot
sufficiently congratulate myself on having come round
by this Presidency. It has sho'svn me much that I
should not easily have learnt otherwise.” It was a
disappointment to him that he had not time to visit
Ceylon, for his old Eton tutor. Chapman, had de-
veloped into Bishop of Colombo, and there would
have been a grand old Etonian pleasure, on both sides,
in talking over old times. But there was consolation
in the thought that his friend Lord Harris, his fellow-
pupil in the Bedfordshire market-town, was Governor
6f Madras. In that presidency he spent a few plea-
sant days, sojourning at Guindy, and then on the
25th of February set out to face the realities of
Indian Government, and steamed up the Bay of
Bengal.

ARRIVAL QF LORD CANNING.

385

On tlie last day of February, Lord Canning dis- i'ebruarj so,
embarked at Calcutta; and, proceeding to Govern-
ment House, at once took his oaths of office and his
seat in Council. It is the custom in such cases. No
time is left for any question to arise as to -who is
Governor- General of India. So brief did the whole
operation appear to him, that he wrote home that he
had been sworn in and installed “ within five minutes
after touching land.” As his dignities and responsi-
bilities commenced at once, so did his work. At the
end of his first week of office, he wrote that such had
been the pressure of public business, that he had
found time only for “ one look out of doors ” since he
arrived. During that first week Lord Dalhousie
tarried in Calcutta, and the past and future of the
Government of India were discussed with interest,
the depths of which were stirred by varying circum-
stances, between those earnest-minded men ; the one
all readiness to teach, the other all eagerness to learn.

Dull and prosaic as its details often appear to Eng-
lishmen at a distance, it is difficult to describe the
living interest with which statesmen in India of all
classes, from the highest to the lowest, perpetually
regard their work.

No man ever undertook the office of Governor- First days <t
General of India under the impression that it would
be a sinecure. But it is scarcely less true that no
man, whatever opinion he may have formed in Eng-
land, ever entered upon its duties without discover-
ing that he had greatly underrated the extent of its
labours. The current of work is so strong and so
continuous ; so many waters meet together to swell
the stream ; that at first even a strong man trying to
breast it may feel that he is in danger of being over-
.whelmed. Time lessens the difficulty ; but at the

2 0

3B6

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTIST.

185 r>. outset, the multiplicity of unfamiliar details distracts
and bewilders even the sharpest wit and the clearest
brain ; and the first result is apt to be a chaos. Box
after box is placed upon the Grovemor-General’s
table ; and each box is crammed with papers rugged
with the names of strange men and stranger places,
and references to unknown events and incomprehen-
sible states of society. By some means or other, he
must master the antecedents of every case that comes
before him for decision ; and there are often very
intricate cases purposely left for his decision, that he
may not be embarrassed by the judgments of his pre«
decessor. "Week after week goes by and little im-
pression is made upon this pile of work. “ Another
fortnight is gone,” wrote Lord Canning towards the
end of March, “ and I am beginning to gather up by
slow degrees the threads of business, as it passes
before me ; but it is severe work to have to give so
much time to the bygones of almost every question
that comes up ; and some weeks more must pass
before I shall feel myself abreast of current events.”
There was a strong conscientiousness within the new
Governor-General which would not sulfer him to
pass anything lightly over, and he endeavoured to
understand ah. that came .before him even at the risk
of some inconvenient delays.

So he did not rush at his work ; but quietly con-
fronted it, and was in no haste to impress people with
a sense of the profundity of his wisdom and the
greatness of his self-reliance. He knew that he had
much to learn, and he adopted the best means of
learning it ; for he invited all the chief agents of his
Government, scattered over the country, especiahy
those who were representing British interests at the
Native Courts, to correspond confidentially with him

THE SIJPEEME CODHCIL.

387

on matters relating to their respective charges; an
invitation which gave to every man thus addressed
full liberty to declare his sentiments and to expound
his views. And thus he escaped the danger on the
one hand of surrendering his own judgment, by suc-
cumbing to the influence of some two or three public
functionaries immediately attached to the Executive
Government, and, on the other, of the over-confident
exercise of a dominant self-will rejecting all external
aids, and refusing to walk by other men’s experiences.

He knew that there was no royal road to a knowledge
of India ; and he was well content that the first year
of his administration should be unostentatiously de-
voted to the great duty of learning his work.

There were able men, too, at his elbow to assist Tli® Council,
him to a correct knowledge of facts, and to the
formation of sound opinions. The Supreme Council
consisted at that time of General John Low, Mr.

Dorin, Mr. John Peter Grant, and Mr. Barnes Pea-
cock. Of the first I can say little in this place that General lew,
has not been already said. The only charge laid
against him by the assailants of the Government was,
that he was well stricken in years. But, although
one who had fought beside Malcolm at Mehidpore,
and then not in his first youth, must have lost some
of the physical energy that animated him in his
prime, his intellect was unimpaired. Ceasing to be a
man of action, he had subsided gracefully into the
condition of a councillor, the Nestor of the Political
Service, a veteran without a stain. No man had so
large an acquaintance with the Native Courts of
Inia ; no man knew the temper of the people better
than John Low. He could see with their eyes, and
speak with their tongues, and read with their under-
standings. And, therefore, he looked with some dis-

2c2

388

ODTBEEAK OF THE MUTINY.

1S56. jjja,y at the wide-spread Englishism of the Dalhousie
school, and sorrowfully regarded the gradual dying
out of the principles in which he had been nurtured
and trained, and to which, heedless of their unpopu-
larity, he clung with honest resolution to the last.
Dalhousie had too often disregarded his counsel ; but
he had always respected the man. And now Canning
equally admired the personal character of his col-
league, but was not equally minded to laugh his
principles to scorn.

Mr. Dorm. q£ Bengal civilians who sat in that

Council, it may be said that the one owed his posi-
tion there apparently to chance, the other to his un-
questionable abilities. Mr. Dorin was not a man of
great parts ; he was not a man of high character. If
he had any official reputation, it was in the capacity
of a financier; and finance was at that time the
weakest point of our Government. He had limited
acquaintance with the country, and but small know-
ledge of the people. He had no earnestness ; no en-
thusiasm ; no energy. He had a genius for making
himself comfortable, and he had no superfluous ac-
tivities of head or heart to mar his success in that
particular direction. He had supported the policy
of Lord Dalhousie, and had recorded in his time
a number of minutes expressing in two emphatic
words, which saved trouble and gained favour, his
concurrence with the most noble the Governor-Gene-
ral; and now if the new ruler was not likely to
find in him a very serviceable colleague, there was
no greater chance of his being found a troublesome
one.

John Peter In John Grant the Governor-General might have

Grant. found both. He was many years younger than his
brother civilian, but he had done infinitely more
work. In him, with an indolent sleepy manner was

JOHN PETEE GEANT.

389

strangely conabined extraordinary activity of ir.ir. d. i856.
He was one of tbe ablest public servants in the conn-
try. With some hereditary claim to distinction, he
had been marked out from the very commencement
of his career, no less by a favourable concurrence of
external circumstances than by his oavn inherent
qualifications, for the highest official success. Ho
young civilian in his novitiate ever carried upon
him so clearly and unmistakably the stamp of the
embryo Councillor, as John Grant. In some respects
this was a misfortune to him. His course was too
easy. He had found his way ; he had not been com-
pelled to make it. He had not been jostled by the
crowd ; he, had seen little or none of the rough work
of Indian administration or Indian diplomacy. It
had been his lot, as it had been his choice, to spend
the greater part of his official life in close connexion,
with the Head-Quarters of the Government; and,
therefore, his opportunities of independent action had
been few ; his personal acquaintance with the coun-
try and the people was not extensive ; and his work
had been chiefly upon paper. But as a member of
a powerful bureaucracy his value was conspicuous.

Quick in the mastery of facts, clear and precise in
their analytical arrangement, and gifted with more
than common powers of expression, he was admi-
rably fitted to discharge the duties of the Secretariat.

He was a dead hand at a report ; and if Government
were perplexed by any difficult questions, involving
a tangled mass of disordered financial accounts, or a
great conflict of authority mystifying the truth, he
was the man of aU others to unravel the intricate or
to elucidate the obscure. Comparatively young in
years, but ripe in bureaucratic experience, he entered
the Supreme Council towards the close of Lord Dal-
housie’s administration. But he had sat long enough

390

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY

1S56.

Birnes

acock.

at tie Board to estaWish his independence. He ex-
pressed his opinions freely and fearlessly ; and his
minutes, when minute-writing was in vogue, were
commonly the best State papers recorded by the
Government of the day. Closely reasoned, forcibly
expressed, with here and there touches of quiet
humour or subdued sarcasm, they cut through any
sophistries put forth by his colleagues, with sharp in-
cisive logic, and clearly stated the points at issue
without disguises and evasions. On the whole, he
was a man of large and liberal views, the natural
manifestations of which were, perhaps, somewhat
straitened by an acquired ofidcial reserve; and no
one questioned the honesty of his intentions or the
integrity of his life.

Mr. Barnes Peacock was the fourth, and, as is
commonly called, the “ Law Member” of Council.
An English lawyer, appointed to aid the great work
of Indian legislation, he was a member of the Execu-
tive rather by sufferance than by right. In a limited
sense, he was supposed to represent the popular ele-
ment in the Council There was no very violent
conflict of class-interests in those days. But so far
as such division existed at all, he was regarded as
the exponent of the views of the non-oflicial Eng-
lishman and of the Europeanised Natives of the
large towns, whose interests are bound up with
our own. For the institution of the Company
he was believed to have no respect, and for the
exclusive system of Government by the Company’s
servants no toleration. He had a clear head, an
acute understanding, but by no means a large mind.
Assiduous in the work of law-making, he was the
very soul of the Le^lative Council; and had he
confined his efforts to the work of moulding into

BABilES PEACOCK.

3&1

tlraft-acls tte ideas of other men, he •would have
been an invaluable public servant. But he some-
times went beyond this; and, when he did so, he
commonly went -vvrong. For.kno'wing little of the
people of India, and having only thoroughly English
notions of philanthropic reforms and legislative bene-
ficences, he would have taught the people better
manners -with a rapidity for which they were not
prepared, if he had unrestrainedly followed out his
©•wn ideas of social improvement. Indeed, he had
already threatened to limit the polygamies of the Na-
tives of India, and, doubtless, had a draft-act for the
purpose on the legislative an'vil, when circumstances
arrested his career of reform. But, although it was
in the legislative department that his especial strength
lay, he did not confine himself to it. He grappled
manfuUy with aU the varied details of the general
administration. There were times when his legal
penetration was of service in the disentanglement of
knotty questions of executive government, and he
sometimes recorded minutes distinguished by no com-
mon powers of special pleading. But, on the whole, this
laborious addiction to business was an encumbrance
and an embarrassment to the Ministry; and Lord Can-
ning had soon reason to complain of the conscientious
excesses of his colleague. A general disinclination to
take anything for granted impeded the progress of
business ; and the Governor-General, not -without a
feeling of admiration for a defect that had its root
in honesty of purpose, endeavoured, and with good
success, to wean the law member from his habit of
mastering details which he was not expected to
understand,, and keeping back business which it was
desirable to dispose of, whilst he was working up the
past history of a Native State, or calculating grain-

3866.

392

OUTBEEAK OF THE MUTINY.

1856 . bags in a commissariat account. There must have
been some inward promptings of self-knowledge in
Canning’s own mind to assure him that this labo-
rious conscientiousness was a part of his own nature ;
but he felt, at the same time, that his larger scope of
responsibility demanded from him a larger scope of
action, and that what was right in the Governor-
General was not therefore right in his departmental
colleague.

Such were the feUow-labourers with whom Lord
Canning was now about to prosecute the work of
Government. On the whole, the Council was not
badly constituted for ordinary purposes of adminis-
tration in quiet times. It contained, indeed, many
of the essential elements of a good Board. What it
most wanted was military knowledge ; for General
Low, though an old soldier of the Madras Army, had
seen more of the Court than of the Camp; and it
was rather in the diplomacies of the Native States
than in the conduct of warlike operations, or in the
details of military administration, that he had earned,
by hard service, the right to be accepted as an autho-
rity.* It was a constitutional fiction that, in an
Indian Council, the necessary amount of military
knowledge was supplied in the person of the Com-
mander-in-Chief, who had a seat in it. The seat,
though legally occupied, was for the most part prac-
tically empty, for duty might not, and inclination
did not, keep the military chief at the Head-Quarters
of the Civil Government. But it happened that,
when Lord Canning arrived in India, he found
General Anson in Calcutta. And it was a pleasure
to him to see in the Indian capital a face that had
been familiar to him in the FiUgbah,

* Shortly after Lord Caiming’s land, but returned at the oommence-
arriral. General Low went to ting ment of the cold weather (1856-57).

GENERAL ANSON.

893

The appointment of the Honourable Geco’ge Anson
to the chief command of the Indian Army took by
surprise the English communities in the three Presi-
dencies, who had seen his name only in the Racing
Calendar, or in other records of the Turf. But there
was one thing at least to be said in his favour ; he
was not an old man. It was not in the nature of
things, after a long European peace, that good service
should be found in the officers of the Queen’s Army
unaccompanied by the weight of years. But the
scandal of imbecility had risen to such a height, the
military world had grown so sick of infirmity in high
places — of the blind, the lame, the deaf, the obesely
plethoric — ^that they were prepared to welcome almost
any one who could sit a horse, who could see from one
end to the other of a regiment in line, and hear the
report of a nine-pounder at a distance of a hundred
yards. There was nothing to be said against George
Anson on this score. He could hear and see; he
could ride and walk. He was of a light spare figure,
well framed for active exercise; and his aspect was
that of a man who could “ stand the climate.” But
with all men who first brave that climate in the
maturity of life, there is a risk and an uncertainty ;
and appearances belied Anson’s capabilities of re-
sistance. During the hot weather and rainy season
of 1856, the heats and damps of Bengal tried him
severely : and Lord Canning more than once wrote
home that his military colleague was reduced to a
skeleton, and had lost all his bodily strength and all
his buoyancy of spirit. But, at the same time, he
spoke of the Chief as one who had many excellent
points, both as an officer and as a man. The precise
limits of authority vested in the chief civil and mili-
tary functionaries are so ill defined, that, when the
powers of both are combined in one individual, it is

S94

OUTBEEAK OF THE MLTINT.

1856. a mercy if lie does not quarrel with himself. When

they are divided, as is commonly the case, a conflict
of authority is inevitable. And so at this time, the
Governor-General and the Commander-in-Chief soon
came into official collision ; but it never grew into
personal strife between Lord Canning and General
Anson. The public prints hinted that there was a rup-
ture between them ; and the same story travelled home-
wards and penetrated Cannon-row. But the Civilian
wrote, that though there had been some special points
of difference between them, the temper of the Soldier
was so charming, and he was so thoroughly a gen-
tleman, that it was quite impossible to quarrel with
him. The inevitable antagonism of official interests
could not weaken the ties of personal regard ; and
when Anson, in the month of September, left Cal-
cutta on a tour of military inspection in the Upper
Provinces, he carried with him no kindlier wishes
than those which attended him w'arm from the heart
of the Governor-General*

* What Lord Canning wrote about
General Anson ia so honourable to
both, that it is quite a pleasure to
quote it. “We get on admirably
together,” wrote the Governor-Gene-
ral in June. “ His temper is charm-
ing, and I know no one whom T
should not be sorry to see substi-
tuted for him.” And again, in Oc-
tober : “ I am not surprised at the
report you mention that Anson and
1 do not get on well together, be-
cause such a rumour was current in
Calcutta two or three months ago,
and even found its way into the
newspapers. I believe it originated
in a difference between us on two
points ; one (of much interest to the
Indian Army), the power of the Com-

mander-in-Chief to withhold appli-
cations for furlough, transmitted
through him to tlie Governor-Gene-
ral in Council ; the other, an autho-
rity to exercise soinetliing very like
a veto upon the Governor-General’s
selections of officers for civil and
political service. Upon both of which
I found it necessary to disallow his
pretensions. But neither these dis-
agreements, nor the reports to which
they gave rise, have for a moment
caused any misunderstanding or re-
serve between us. It would be very
difficult to quarrel with any one so
imperturbably good tempered, and
so thoroughly a gentleman.” — MJS,
Corresjfojidence,

Tlii uUM ADMINISmTION.

3'J5

CHAPTER II.

L'jTiti Ct'KKTse’s maa tear — tub otob commission— wajid au ano

THE EMBASSY TO ENGLAND— THE PERSIAN WAR— THE QUESTION OV
COMMAND— JAMES OUTBAM— CENTRAL-ASIAN POLICY— DOST MAHOMED—

JOHN LAWRENCE AND HERBERT EDWABDES AT PESHAWUR — HENRY
LAWRENCE IN LUCKNOW.

"With these colleagues in the Council Chamber, and 1S3?.
■with a staff of able, well-trained secretaries, of whom
I shall speak hereafter, in the several Departments,
the new Governor-General found the burden of his
work, though it pressed hea'vily upon him, in no way
galling or dispiriting. There are always small vexa-
tions and embarrassments ; incidental details, that "will
not run smoothly in the administrative groove, but
grind and grate and have a stubborn obstructiveness
about them. But the great smn-total of the business
before him wore an aspect cheerful and encourag-
ing. There was tranquillity in India. Outwardly,
it seemed that Lord Dalhousie had left only a
heritage of Peace. Even in Oude, just emerging ^eAdmmis’
from a revolution, there were external signs of general
quietude ; of contentment, or at least of submission ;
and of the satisfactory progress of the administra-
tion. But a new administrator was wanted. Outram
had done his work He had been selected to fill die
office of Resident, and no man could have more be-

396

outbreak; of the mutikt.

1S56.

Question of
succession.

comingly represented British interests at a corrupt
and profligate Court. In that capacity it had fallen
to his lot to accomplish ministerially the revolution
•which had been decreed by the British Government.
But it was work that sickened him ; for although he
believed that it was the duty of the Paramount State
to rescue Oude from the anarchy by which it had so
long been rent, he was one whose political predilec-
tions were in favour of the maintenance of the Native
States, and he knew that much wrong had been done
to the Princes and Chiefs of India under the plea of
promoting the interests of the people. When the
Proclamation converted Oude into a British province,
the Resident became Chief Commissioner, and the
superintendence of the administration was the work
that then devolved upon him. But it was work that
Outram was not now destined to perform. His
health had broken down ; the hot season was coming
on apace ; and a voyage to England had been ur-
gently pressed upon him by his medical advisers. So
he sought permission to lay do-wn the Portfolio for
a while, and asked the Governor-General to appoint
an officer to act for him in his absence.

It would have been comparatively easy to find a
successor suited to the work, if the appointment to
be disposed of had been a permanent one. But Lord
Canning had to fi.nd a man able to conduct the ad-
ministration at its most difficult stage, and yet willing
to forsake other important work for the brief tenure
of another’s office. Outram said that there was one
man in whom both the ability and the will were to
be found. That man was Henry Ricketts, a Bengal
civilian of high repute, whose appointment was
pressed upon Lord Canning as the best that could be
made. But Ricketts . was wanted for other work.

HEXKY LAWEENCE.

397

The authorities at home were clamourmg for a reduc-
tion of expenditure ; and as retrenchment, public or
private, com m only begins in the wrong place, a re-
vision of official salaries was to be one of the &st
efforts of our economy. So Mr. Ricketts had been
specially appointed to furnish a Report on the best
means of extracting from the officers of Government
the same amount of good public service for a less
amount of public money. Lord Canning shook his
head doubtfully at the experiment ; but Cannon-row
was urgent, and nothing was to be suffered to inter-
rupt the labours of the man who was to suggest the
means of increasing the financial prosperity of the.
Company by sapping out the energies of those upon
whom that prosperity mainly depended.

Whilst Outram and the Governor- General were
corresponding about this arrangement, another plan
for the temporary administration of Oude was sug-
gesting itself; but it never became more than a sug-
gestion. Ever since the dissolution of the Lahore
Board, Sir Henry Lawrence had held office as chief
of the Political Agency in Rajpootana. It was a
post of honour and responsibility ; but there was not
in the work to be done enough to satisfy so ardent
and so active a mind, and he had longed, duriug
that great struggle before Sebastopol, which he had
watched with eager interest from the beginning, to
show, when all the departments were breaking down,
what a rough-and-ready Indian Political might do to
help an army floundering miserably in a strange
land. But this field of adventure was closed against
him. Peace was proclaimed : and Henry Lawrence,
who had studied well the history and the institutions
of Oude, and who had advocated the assumption of
the government, but not the annexation of the pro-

1856.

398

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

lS5r>.

The New
Comnois*
sioner.

vince or the absorption of its revenues, thought that
he might do some good by superintending the ad-
ministration during the first year of our tenure.
There were many interests to be dealt with in that
conjuncture, which require! a strong but a gentle
hand to accommodate them to the great revolution
that had been accomplished, and he felt some appre-
hension lest civilian-government, harsh and precise,
should forthwith begin to systematise, m utter dis-
regard of the institutions and the usages of the
country, and should strike at once for a flourishing
balance-sheet. It was too little the fashion to sym-
pathise with the fallen fortunes of men ruined by
the dominant influence of the White Race. In the
chivalrous benevolence of the out-going Commis-
sioner, Henry Lawrence had full confidence. The
great-hearted compassion which Outram had shown
for the Ameers of Scinde, proclaimed the mercy and
the justice of the man. But a civilian of the new
school from the Regulation Provinces might bring
with him a colder heart and a sharper practice, and
might overbear ati ancient rights and privileges in
pursuit of the favourite theory of the Dead Level.
Anxious to avert this, which he believed would be a
calamity alike to the people of Oude and to his own
government, Henry Lawrence offered to serve, during
the transition-period, in Outram’s place ; and the finst
misfortune that befel the ministry of Lord Canning
was that the letter, conveying the proposal, arrived a
little too late. A Commissioner had already been ap-
pointed.

The choice had fallen on Mr. Coverley Jackson, a
civilian firom the North-West Provinces, an expert
revenue-officer, held in high esteem as. a man of
ability, but more than suspected of some infirmity of

COVERLET JACKSON.

399

temper, .^are of this notorious failing, but not 1656 .
deeming it sufficient to disqualify one otherwise so
well fitted for the post, Lord Canning accompanied
his offer of the appointment with a few words of
caution, frank but kindly, and Jackson in the same
spirit received the admonition, assuring the Goyernor-
General that it would be his earnest endeavour to
conciliate the good feelmgs of aU who might be
officially connected with him, so far as might be con-
sistent with the claims of the public service and the
maintenance of the authority entrusted to him. But
he did not accomplish this; and there is slight evi-
dence that he resolutely attempted it. It was an un-
toward occurrence that the man next in authority,
and the one with whom the circumstances of the
province brought him most frequently into official
communication, was as litde able to control his
temper as Jackson himself. Mr. Martin Gubbins, of
the Bengal Civil Service, was the Financial Commis-
sioner. Upon him devolved the immediate superin-
tendence of the revenue administration of our new
territory, whilst Mr. Ommaney, of the same service,
superintended the department of Justice. A man of
rare intelligence and sagacity, eager and energetic,

Martin Gubbins would have been a first-rate public
servant, if his utility had not been marred by a
contentious spirit. His angularities of temper were
continually bringing him into collision with others,
and his pertinacious self-assertion would not suffer
him, when once entangled in a controversy, ever to
detach himself from it. Of all men in the service he Jackson, and
was the one least likely to work harmoniously with
the Chief Commissioner. So it happened that, in a
very short time, they were in a state of violent an-
tagonism. Whether, in the first instance, Jackson

400

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

1856. overstrained Ms autliority, and unwisely and unkindly
expressed Ms displeasure in language calculated to
excite irritation and resentment, or wketlier GubMns
was tlie first to display an insubordinate spirit, and to
provoke tbe censure of Ms chief by the attempted
usurpation of Ms powers, it is of little importance
now to inquire. The sharp contention that grew up
between them was soon made known to the Governor-
General, who deplored and endeavoured to arrest it.
How wisely and calmly he conveyed to the Commis-
sioner an expression, less of his displeasure than of
his regret, his correspondence pleasantly illustrated.*
But no kindly counsel from Government House could
smoothe down the asperities of Jackson’s temper. As
time advanced, the feud between him and Gubbins
grew more bitter and more irreconcilable. In India,
a paper war once commenced lasts out many a mili-
tary campaign. There is something so exciting, so
absorbing in it, that even the best public servants
sometimes forget the public interests whilst they are
wasting their time and expending their energies in
personal conflicts and criminations. Had Coverley
Jackson taken half as much pains to see that the
pledges of the British Government were fulfilled,
and the annexation of Oude rendered as little ruinous

* Take, for example, the follow- of his duty, and is possessed of the
ing: “Judging by my own expe- feelings and temper of a gentleman,
rience, I should say that in dealing the more simply his error is put be-
with public servants who have in- fore him, and the more plain and quiet
curred blame, everything is to be the reproof, the better chance there
gained by telling them their faults in is of his correcting himself readily
unmistakable language, plainly and and willingly, and that if we wish to
nakedly ; but that one’s purpose get work done hereafter out of some
(their amendment) is rather defeated one whom it is necessary to rebuke,
than otherwise by the use of terms we ought to give him as little excuse
that sting them, or amplify their as possible (he will too often find
offences to them unnecessarily — even it where it is not given) for feeling
though all be done within the strict irritated against ourselves.” —Lord
limits of truth and fact. I believe Canning to Mr. Comrley Jackson,
that if a man has at bottom a sense July 7, 1856.— Corresj^ondence^

THE KING OF OUDE.

401

as possible to all the chief people of the province, 1856.
as he did to convict his subordinates of ofOcial mis-
demeanours, it would have been better both for his
own character and for the character of the nation.

But whilst Jackson and Gubbins were in keen con-
tention with each other, covering reams of paper with
their charges and counter-charges and their vehement
self-assertions, the generous nature of the Governor-
General was grieved by complaints and remonstrances
from the King, who declared, or suffered it to be
declared for him, that the English officers in Luck-
now were inflicting grievous wrongs and indignities
upon him and upon his Family, seizing or destroying
his property, and humiliating the members and de-
pendents of his House.

It has been shown that Wajid Ali, when he saw Movemenfi
that all hope of saving his dominions from the great
white hand that had been laid upon them had utterly
gone from him, had talked about travelling to Eng-
land and laying his sorrows at the foot of the Throne.

But, in truth, travelling to England, or to any other
place, was a thing rather to be whined about than
to be done, by one so destitute of all activities,
physical and mental, and it was almost certain that
he would hitch somewhere ; not improbably at the
first stage. And so he did. Halting not far from
Lucknow, the King awaited the on-coming of his
minister, Ali Nuckee Khan, a man not wanting in
activities of any kind, who had been detained at
the capital to aid in the “ transfer of the Govern-
ment,” out of which he had been ousted. But after
a while King and Minister, and other regal appen-
dages, male and female, moved on towards Calcutta
— ^the first stages by land ; then afterwards taking the
fiver-steamer, at a time of year when there is ever a.

2 D

The Oude
Mission.

402 OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

scaut supply of TOter for such travelling, they were
constrained to go “ round by the Sunderbunds,” and
make a long and by no means a pleasant voyage to
the English capital ; of which necessity Lord Can-
ning shrewdly observed that it would give his Majesty
such a foretaste of life on board as would inevitably
drive out of him any lingering thought of the passage
across the black water to England.

And so it was. The King arrived at Calcutta when
the month of May had burnt itself half out, and was
soon domiciled in a house on the river-side, which had
erst been the suburban villa of an English Chief-
Justice. It Avas enough for him to see the steamers
smoking past him sea-wards; and to keep steadily
before him the conviction that for a man of his tastes
and habits, to take no account of his girth, Garden-
Reach was a more recommendable place than the Bay
of Bengal, the Red Sea, or the Mediterranean. But
still the pilgrimage to the foot of the Throne Avas to
be undertaken, not by but for the last of the Oude
Kings. Without any sacrifice of his personal ease,
or any abandonment of the delights of the Zenana, he
might enter a vicarious appearance at St. James’s by
sending the chief members of his family — ^the nearest
of his kindred, in each stage and relation, before,
beside, and after him — ^his mother, his brother, and
his son, with agents and ministers, black and white,
to plead against the seizure of his dominions.

There Avas one of the royal party with some sub-
stance of masculine Augour stiU left as God had given
It ; and that one was not the Heir- Apparent, or the
so-caRfed General, or a bom manhood of any kind,
but the Queen-Mother, Avho set the example of going
across the dreary waste of black water and level sand
straight to the feet of the Queen of England. And

THE OXJDE MISSION.

403

they ■went, not scantily attended either, those three, 1856
like thieves in the night, embarking secretly in the
darkness, and taking Government House by surprise
■with the report of the accomplished fact of their de-
parture. Not that Government House would have
opposed any obstacle to their going in broad daylight,
with drums beating and flags flying; but that the
steam-company, with an eye to business, thought it
better to make a secret of it ; such fellow-travellers,
according to European notions, not increasing the
comforts of the voyage. As to the Governor-General,
all he could say was, “ Let them go pitying the
East India Company, thus compelled to receive such
troublesome visitors, but claiming for them kindly
and courteous treatment at the hands of the mag-
nates of Leadenhall. And so those representatives of
the exploded kingship of Oude went westward, with
vague but extensive ideas of a recovery past look-
ing for on this side of eternity, buoyed up and en-
couraged by men who Avell knew the hopelessness
of the endeavour. The ‘‘case” was miserably mis-
managed. There was much internal strife, and
scarcely an attempt to strike out against the common
foe. The so-called “ Mission” went to pieces and
rotted piecemeal. Not merely waste of treasure was
there, but waste of life. The Queen-Mother and the
Prince-General died, and were buried in the great
cemetery of P^re la Chaise. The Heir- Apparent,
money-bound and helpless, threw himself upon the
mercy of the enemy, borrowed from them half a lakh
of rupees, and was carried homewards, somewhat
dazed and bewildered as to the upshot or no upshot
of the whole affair, but with a prevailing sense of
escape and relief that it was all over. And the rest
of the luckless embassy went at last, leaving behiftd

2i>2

404

OUTBREAK OF THE HUTIKY.

1856 .

Grievances of
the ex-King.

them some scum of official trouble and mishap,
some legal perplexities not readily soluble by any
“ perfection of human reason” known in our English
courts.

Meanwhile, in the name of the King himself,
ministerial activities had not been wanting in India
to make substantial grievance, not so much of the
thing done (for that was left to the “ Mission”) as
of the manner of doing it, which had not been ^
right. In the Humanities, wherein is included the
great art of letting down easily, good to be learnt
alike by Men and by Governments, we had not
taken first-class honours. Not wdthout some red-
denings of shame is it to be recorded that the
wrongs inflicted upon the Princes of India in the
shape of territorial dispossessions and titular extinc-
tions had been sometimes supplemented by lesser
wrongs, more grievous to bear upon the one side and
less to be justified on the other. For there is some
dignity in great wrong, doing or suffering ; and a
persuasion, in one case, not without sincerity at the
bottom, that wrong is right. But look at the matter
in what light we may, it can be nothing but miserable
wrong to make these dispossessions and extinctions,
which may be for the national good, the forerunners
of personal distresses and humiliations to individuals
thus dispossessed and extinguished. Yet men and,
redder shame still, feeble Zenana-bred women had
brought this charge against the strong Government of
the British, before the kingdom of Oude was marked
for extinction ; and now again the same complaint of
supplemental cruelties and indignities, more galling
than the one great wrong itself, went up from Wajid
Ali, or was uttered in his name. It was charged
against us that our officers had turned the stately
palaces of Lucknow into stalls and kennels, that

GEIEVANCES OF THE CUBE FAMILY. 40.^

delicate women, the daughters or the companions of 1856.
Kings, had been sent adrift, homeless and helpless,
that treasure-houses had been violently broken open
and despoiled, that the private property of the royal
family had been sent to the hammer, and that other
vile things had been done very humiliating to the
King’s people, but far more disgraceful to our own.

Not only so disgraceful, but so injurious to us, so
great a blunder, indeed, would such conduct h/jve
been, that all who had any hope of the restoration cf
the Oude monarchy must have devoutly wished the
story to be true. There were those who had such
hope. How could it be hopeless, when it was re-
membered that the Sepoy Army of the Company was.
full of men whose homes were in Oude ; when it was
believed that the great flood of English rule was
sweeping away aU existing interests, and destroying
all the influential classes alike in the great towns and
in the rural districts? The ministers and courtiers
of the King of Oude were at large in Calcutta and.
the neighbourhood, and might journey whithersoever
they pleased. Vast fields of intrigue were open before
them. The times w'ere propitious. It was plain that
there was a feeling of inquietude in the native mind,
and that fear had engendered discontent. It was
certain that the British Government were weak, for
the country was stripped of European troops. The
good day might yet come. Meanwhile, it might be
something to spread abroad, truly or falsely, a story
to the effect that the English, adding insult to injury,
had cruelly humiliated all the members of the Oude
family left behind in Lucknow.

In these stories of official cruelty Canning had
small faith. But the honour of his Government de-
manded that they should be inquired into and con-
tradicted, and he urged the Chief Commissioner at

406

OUTBREAK OE THE MUTEST.

1S56. ouce to investigate and report upon the charges put
lorth by the creatures of the King. But Jackson,
lull of his own wrongs, failed to see the importance
of the task assigned to him, and his answers were
unsatisfactory and apparently evasive. Privately
as well as publicly he was urged by the Governor-
General to address himself seriously to the work of
elFacing from the nation the dishonour with which
the dependents of the old Court of Lucknow had
endeavoured to besmear the British, name. But
the result was not what Lord Canning had sought,
not what he had expected. So at last, bitterly grieved
and disappointed by the manner in which his repre-
sentative had dealt with a subject, at onc.e of so
delicate and so important a nature, the Governor-
General thus becom.ingj.y poured forth, his indig-
OcfoTier 19, nation ; “ I will not conceal from you,” he wrote to
Mr. Jackson, “ my disappointment at the manner in
which from first to last you have treated this matter.
Instead of enabling the Government to answer dis-
tinctly and categorically every complaint which the
King has preferred, you have passed over unnoticed
some upon which you must have known that the
Government were without materials for reply. Upon
placing your answers,, now that all have been re-
ceived, side by side with the King’s letters, I find
myself quite unable to say whether any buildings
such as he describes have been pulled down, and if
so, why? — although one building, the Jelwa Khana,
had been especially mentioned to the King, as in
course of demolition — ^whether dogs or horses have
been quartered in the Chutter Munzil, and especially
whether a stoppage of the allowances to the King’s
descendants has been threatened, a statement to this
effect being pointedly made in the King’s letter of
the 14th of September You tell me that you Have

SHORT-COMIXGS OF THE CHIEF COMMISSIOXEE. 407

delayed your answers in order that they may he more 1336 .
complete. I can hardly think, therefore, that these
matters have escaped you, and yet I do not know
how otherwise to account for their being passed by.

Be this as it may, the result of your course of pro-
ceeding is that the Governor-General is placed in an
unbecoming, not to say humiliating position towards
the King of Oude. The King brings complaints,
which, whether true or false, are plain enough against
;tl;ie officers of Government, and the Governor-Gene-
ral, after assuring the King that as soon as reference
.shall have been made to the Chief Commissioner,
^satisfactory explanation shall be given, and relpng,
as he has a right to do, that that officer will obey
his instructions and do his duty, finds himself alto-
gether mistaken, and defeated upon points which,
however unworthy of notice they may appear to the
Chief Commissioner at Lucknow, cannot be slurred
over by the Government in Calcutta. It matters
nothing that these charges are instigated by dis-
reputable hangers-on of the King, or that they are
wholly or partly untrue, or even impossible. There
they are in black and white, and they must be
answered. It is surprising to me that you should
have failed to appreciate the necessity.”

And it was surprising; but Coverley Jackson, at
that time, could scarcely appreciate any necessity save
that of riding roughshod over Gubbins and Ommaney,
and keeping them down to the right subordinate level.

How far these charges of cruel indifference to the feel-
ings of the Oude family were true, to what extent the
dependents of the late King were wronged and hu-
miliated, and the nobles of the land despoiled and
depressed; how, indeed, the revolution affected all
existing interests, are subjects reserved for future in-
quiry. It would have been well if the Chief Comroiis-

408

OUTBREAK OE THE MUTINY.

1856. sioncr had done as much to mollify these poor people
as to exasperate his own colleagues. But the temper
of the man was to the last degree arbitrary and ex-
acting, and Lord Canning, though with admirable
patience and moderation he strove to control the ex-
cesses of his agent, could not hold them in check.
Pointing to the great exemplar of John Lawrence, the
Oude administration having been constructed on the
Punjabee model, he showed that the reins of govern-
ment might be held with a firm and vigorous hand by
one not grasping at all departmental authority. But
these kindly teachings were in vain. The old strife
continued. Striking with one hand at Grubbins, and
with the other at Ommaney, the Chief Commissioner
was continually in an attitude of offence ; and the ad-
ministration was likely to be wrecked altogether upon
the lee-shore of these internal contentions. So, at
ia.st, the Governor-General was forced upon the con-
viction that he had selected the wrong man to preside
in Oude, and that the sooner he could be removed
from it the better for the province.

The readiest means of effecting this, without any
public scandal or any recorded reproach injurious to
Jackson’s career, was by the restoration of James
Outram to the post which the civilian had been hold-
ing for him. Very unfit, doubtless, was the “ officiating
Chief Commissioner” for that post ; but he had done
good service to the State, he had some commendable
points of character, and even at the bottom of his
proved incapacity for this particular office there might
be nothing worse than a ffistempered zeal. So Lord
Canning, in the exercise of what is called a “ sound
discretion,” as well as in obedience to the dictates of a
kind heart, sought to accomplish the end in view by
a return to the status ante in the natural order of
things, rather than by any violent supersession of his

WAE WITH PEESIA.

409

unfortunate nominee. It Avas doubly a source, there- 18E6-
fore, of satisfaction to him to learn that Outram,
whose shattered health at the time of his departure in
the spring had excited sad forebodings in the mind of
the Governor-General, now in the autumn declared
himself convalescent and about to return to his work.

But the work, the very thought of which had breathed
into the veins of the soldier-statesman new health, and
revived all his prostrate activities, was not administra-
tive business in Oude. It was altogether work of
another kind and in another place, far enough away
from the scene of all his former endeavours; work
the account of which must be prefaced by some
historical explanations.

Scarcely had Lord Canning taken his place in The mpturf
Government House, when the question of a war
Persia began to assume portentous dimeiision.9. Truly,
it was not his concern. Ever since the days when,
nearly half a century before, there had been a strange
mad scramble for diplomatic supremacy in Persia be-
tween the delegates of the Governor-General and of
the Court of St. James’s, the position of the Govern-
ment of India towards our Persian Mission and our
Persian policy had been very indistinctly defined. The
financial responsibility of the Company had been at
all times assumed, and the executive assistance of the
Indian Government had been called for, when our re-
lations with that perfidious Court had been beset with
difificulties beyond the reach of diplomatic address.

But the political control had been vested in the Im-
perial Government, as represented by the Foreign
Office;* and the officers of the Mission had been

^ Except during a brief interval ; delegated partially the manngement
that is, between the years 1826 and of affairs to the Governor-General,

1835, when the King’s Government only to resume it wholly again.

410

OUTBEEAK OP THE MUTINY.

1856. nominated by tbe CroAvn. AiFairs were still in this
state when Lord Canning assumed the Government
of India, and found that Great Britain was rapidly
drifting into a war with Persia, which it would he his
duty to direct, and the resources for which must be
supplied from the country under his charge.

Herat. The difficulties, which now seemed to render war

inevitable, were chronic difficulties, which were fast
precipitating an acute attack of disease. They were
an after-growth of the great convulsion of 1838, which
had culminated in the war in Afghanistan. We had
tried to forget that hated country ; but there was a
Kemesis that forbade oblivion. It was an article of
our political faith that Herat must be an independent
principality, and we clung to it as if the very salvation
of our Indian Empire depended on the maintenance
of this doctrine. But there was nothing in the whole
range of Eastern politics so certain to engender con-
tinual tribulation, and at last to compel us to apostatise
in despair. The independence of Herat was a shadowy
idea ; it never could be a substantial reality. With
an Army of Occupation in Afghanistan, and with
British officers freely disbursing British gold at the
“ gate of India,” we had for a while maintained the
outward independence of the principality under Shah
Eamran of the Suddozye House of Caubul ; but even
then the minister, Yar Mahomed, was continually de-
claring that his heart was with Iran, and threatening
to throw himself into the arms of the Persian King.
When the British Army had evacuated Afghanistan,
the bold, unscrupulous minister, having soon relieved
himself of the nominal sovereignty of the Suddozye,
began to rule the country on his own account. ■ And
he ruled it well : that is, he ruled it with vigour ; and
for some ten years, by astute diplomacy, the soul of

THE POUTICS OF HERAT.

411

which vas a system, of small concessions to Persia,
which soothed her pride and averted great demands,
he governed the principality in peace, and maintained
its nominal integrity. But his son, Syud Mahomed,
who succeeded him, had none of the essentials of a
great ruler. Plentifully endowed with his father’s
wickedness, he lacked all his father’s vigour. Trea-
cherous and unscrupulous, but feeble in the extreme,
he was ready, on the first appearance of danger, to
become a creature, of the Persian Court. Persia
eagerly seized the opportunity; and again England
appeared upon the scene.

In the course of 1852, a Persian Army marched
upon Herat. Not, indeed, in open defiance ; not with
any avowed object of conquest ; but nominally, as a
powerful aUy, to perform an office of friendship. On
the death of Yar Mahomed the aflfairs of the princi-
pality had fallen into confusion, and the Persian
Army went forth with the benevolent design of re-
storing them to order and prosperity. But the mask
was soon thrown aside. The real object of the expe-
dition proclaimed itself. Herat was declared to be an
appendage of the Persian monarchy. This was not
to be borne. To maintain the independence of Herat,
England a few years before had been prepared to
send her legions to the gates of the city. And now
Persia was destroying it by a trick. , So, fortified by
instructions from D owning-street, the British minister
resisted the outrage. On pain of an entire forfeiture
of the friendship of Great Britain, the Persian Govern-
ment were called upon to withdraw their array, and to
enter into a solemn covenaint binding them to recog-
nise and respect the independence of Herat. There
were then the usual displays of trickery and evasive-
ness ; but overawed at last by the resolute bearing of

1852 ,

412

OUTBBEAE. OF THE MUTIKt.

1833, the British minister, the required pledge was given
and Persia hound herself to acknowledge the inde-
pendence which she was so eager to crush. But she
was sorely disturbed and irritated by our interference
with her schemes of ambition ; and thenceforth the
British Mission became an object of dislike and sus-
picion at Teheran ; and a rupture between the two
Courts was only a question of time.

The war in the Crimea delayed — it did not avert —
the inevitable crisis. The genius of Persia had then
free scope for exercise, and turned to the best account
its opportunities of double-dealing. Waiting the sen-
tence of the great Judge of Battles, she coquetted
both with Russia and with the Allies, and was ready
to sell her good offices to the stronger party, or in a
time of uncertainty to the higher bidder. But when
the w'^ar ceased, her importance was gone; she had
not been able to turn her position to account during
the day of strife, and when peace dawned again upon
Europe, she tried in vain to be admitted to the great
international Council, which made the work of re-
conciliation complete. Disappointed and offended,
perhaps, not thinking much of our boasted victory,
for Russia had been successful in Asiatic Turkey, and
Persia knew less about Sebastopol than about Kars,
she could see no profit in the English alliance. The
minister who then directed her affairs had no feeling
of affection for the British representative at her Court.
A strong personal prejudice, therefore, came in to
aggravate the national antipathy ; and before the end
of 1855, the Mission had been so grievously insulted
that Mr. Murray hauled down the British Flag, pud
set his face towards the Turkish frontier.

1S55. Into the details of this affair it is unnecessary to
enter. Another event occurred about the same time.

DOST MAHOMED KHAN.

413

A rebellion broke out in Herat. Syud Mabomed was 1855 .
killed. In his place was installed a member of the
old Suddozye House, a nephew of Shah Kamran,

Yusoof Khan by name, who had no peculiar qualifi-
cations for empire, but who could not be worse than
the man whom he had supplanted. A revolution of
this kind is so much in the common course of Afghan
history, that we need not seek to account for it by
any other than internal causes. But it was said that
it had been fomented by Persian intrigue ; and it is
certain that the Government of the Shah were eager
to profit by the crisis. The times were propitious.

There was in Central Asia at that time one great man,
whose movements were regarded at the Persian Court
with alarm not altogether feigned, though sometimes
exaggerated for a purpose. Ever since the British
had set the seal on their confession of gigantic failure
in Afghanistan by restoring Dost Mahomed to empire,
the energies and activities of the old Ameer had ex-
pended themselves on the consolidation of his former
dominions ; and now he was hot to extend them to
the westward. It was not merely an impulse of ambi-
tion. In part, at least, it was an instinct of self-
preservation. The pretensions of Persia were not
limited, and her encroachments were not likely to be
confined, to the principality of Herat. Already she
had established a dominant influence in Candahar,
and did not scruple to talk about her rights of
dominion. It was impossible for Dost Mahomed to
recard this with unconcern. That Persia had views
of extended influence, if not of actual conquest, in
Afghanistan Avas certain. She had proposed to the
Ameer himself to reduce the whole country to the
condition of a protected State. The time had now
come for him to put forth a mighty hand and a

414

OUTBREAK OF THE SIUTINI.

1855. stretched-out arm for the maintenance of the inde-
pendence of Afghanistan. Kohun-dil-Khan, his half-
brother, the Chief of Candahar, died in the autumn
of 1855. Dost Mahomed had never trusted him ; and
his son was not to be trusted. So the Ameer, who
had no love for half-measures, annexed Candahar to
the kingdom of Caubul ; and the Persian Government
believed, or pretended to believe, that he included
Herat itself in his scheme of conquest.

He had at that time no such design. But it was a
favourite trick of Persia to justify her omi acts of
aggression by a reference to some alleged danger and
the necessity of self-preservation. So, seeing in the
internal state of Herat an encouraging opportunity,
and in the movements of Dost Mahomed a plausible
pretext for evading their obligations, the Government
of the Shah tore the convention of 1853 into shreds,

1856. and again marched an army upon Herat. But it met
with no welcome there. Alarmed by the movements
of the Caubul Ameer, and threatened with a counter-
revolution at home, the nominal ruler of Herat had
turned toAvards the Persians for assistance, but when
he found that the chief people of the place were op-
posed to such an alliance, and that a strong national
Sooneeism prevailed among them, he hoisted British
colours and invited Dost Mahomed to come to his aid.
The characteristic bad faith of the Suddozye Princes
was conspicuous in this wretched man. His own
people could not trust him. The Persians were in-
vesting the place, and it was feared that Yusoof Khan
would betray the city into their hands. It Avas easy,
therefore, to raise & party against him. So Eesa Khan,
the Deputy or Lieutenant-Governor of the place, caused
him to be seized, and sent him a prisoner into the
enemy’s camp, with a letter declaring that he was of

VIEWS OF LOUD CANNKG.

415 '

no use in Herat, and tliat the Persians might do with
him as they liked.

To this point events had progressed when Lord
Canning was called upon to address himself seriously
to the consideration of the troubled politics of Central
Asia. To the new Governor-General these complica-
tions were a source of no common anxiety, for he could
see clearly that England was drifting into war, and
that, however little he might have to do with it in its
origin and conception, its execution would be en-
trusted to him. There was a bitter flavour about the
whole affair that was distasteful in the extreme to the
Governor-General. “ My hope of an accommodation,”
lie wrote to the President in August, “has almost
died out, and I contemplate the prospect of the in-
glorious and costly operations which lie before us
Avith more disgust than I can express.”* He had
gone out, as others had gone before him, Avith an '
avowed and a sincere desire for peace ; but Avarned
by their cruel disappointments, he had laid fast hold
in India of the resolution which he had formed in Eng-
land, and he Avas not by any adverse or any alluring
circumstances to be driven or enticed into unnecessary
war. “Do not,” he said, “be afraid of my being
unduly hasty to punish Persia. Unless the Shah
should steam up the Hooghly, with Murray swinging
at his yard-arm, I hope that Ave shall be able to keep
the peace untfl. your instructions arrive.”t And he
AA'^as anxious to avoid, not only aggresdve measures
from the side of India, but any diplomatic entangle-
rhents that might at some future time be a cause of
jferplexity to his Government. The politics of Central
Asia hd regarded with extreme aversion. Remember-

* Lord Canning to Mr. Vernon- + The same to the same, April 23,
Smith, August 8, 1850. — MS* 1856, — MS*,

1’85G.

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

1856.

August,

1856.

41fi

ing the fearful lessons of the Past, he determined non
of his own free will, to send a single man into Aighan-
istan ; and he resisted the promptings of Ministers at
home, when it was suggested to him somewhat pre-
maturely that seasonable donatives might convert
Dost Mahomed into an effective ally, willing and
ready to apply a blister from the side of Candahar
And when, at a later period, instructions came from
England to supply the Ameer with arms and money
and authority was given to the Governor-General to
send a British Mission to Herat, he shrunk from
acting upon the latter suggestion. “ I do not pur-
pose,” he wrote, “to use the permission to send
British officers to Herat. We know much too little
of things there to justify this step, which would for
certain be full of risk. The place is hard pressed by
famine as well as by the enemy. Our officers could
take with them no relief nor any promise of it, for we
are not going to march to Herat ourselves, and we
cannot afford to promise on the faith of the Ameer’s
performances.”

But unwilling as was Lord Canning to adopt the
measures, to which reference was made in these
letters, he could not maintain this policy of non-
interference in Afghanistan after the Home Govern-
ment had determined upon the declaration of Avar
against Persia. The year had scarcely dawned, when
such an upshot began to be discussed as something
of no very remote reality, and before Parliament had
broken up and her Majesty’s Ministers had dispersed
for the autumn, the equipment of an expedition to
the Persian Gulf had been decreed. The orders from
Home were that all preparations should be made for
the despatch of a military and naval expedition from

THE PERSIAN EXPEDITION. 417

Bombay to tbe Persian Gulf ; but that pending the 1856.
progress of some further diplomacies in Europe,
which might end in concession^ no actual start
should be made. It was not until the end of Sep-
tember that her Majesty’s Government, through the
legal channel of the Secret Committee of the Court
of Directors of the East India Company, sent out
final instructions for the sailing of the expedition
and the commencement of the war.* On the evert-
ing of the last day of October, these instructions
reached the Governor-General in Calcutta, and on the
following morning — day of evil omen, for eighteen Novem'ber
years before it had delivered itself of the sad Afghan
manifesto — a proclamation of war was issued. On
the same day it was sent to Lord Elphinstone at
Bombay, and the General in command was charged
with instructions respecting the conduct of the expe-
dition, and ordered straightway to begin.

The question of the command of the expedition The question
had been one, which Lord Canning by no means
found it easy to solve. Many names had been sug-
gested to him, and among them that of General
Windham — “Windham of the Redan” — who had
performed feats of gallantry in the Crimea, and was
ready for hard service in any part of the world.

^ The orders were, under date ning copies of Lord Clarendon’s in-
July 22, 1856, that measures were structions to the British Consuls in
to be “immediately taken at Bom- Persia to withdraw from that coun-
bay for the preparation of an expe- try, and of a letter addressed by his
dition sufficiently powerful to occupy Lordship to the Commissioners for
tlie island of Karrack in the Persian the Affairs of India, “ requiring that
Gulf, and the district of Bushire on the expedition, which will have been
the mainland ; but the expedition is prepared, under instructions of the
not to sail until further orders shall 22nd of July, shall, as soon as it can
have been received from this country.” be completed, proceed to its destina-
On the 26th of September the Secret tion in the Persian Gulf.”

Committee forwarded to Lord Can-

2 E

418

OTJTBKEA.K Or THE MUTINT.

But Lord Canning, whilst thoroughly appreciating
Windham’s gallant services in the field, and knowing
well that his appointment would be “ popular in Eng-
land,” saw that there were strong reasons against it.
“ In a mixed force of Queen’s and Company’s troops,”
he said, “ it is of great importance that there should
he a willing and earnest co-operation of all subordi-
nate of0.cers with the Commander, and it is more
difficult to obtain this for a stranger than for one who
is known. The Commander should have some ac-
quaintance , with the Indian Army, if he has to lead
a large force of it into an unknown and difficult
country. He should know something of its constitu-
tion, temper, and details — of what it can and what it
can not do. This would not be the case with Wind-
ham, fresh landed from England.” And it is not to
be doubted that he was right. If the force had been
on a larger scale, the Commander-in- Chief himself
might perhaps have been placed at its head ; but Lord
Canning, with the highest possible opinion of General
Anson’s fine temper, of the assiduity with which he
had addressed himself to the business of his high
office, and the ability with which he had mastered its
details, had still some misgivings with respect to his
prejudices, and doubted whether he had not formed
certain conclusions unjust to the Company’s Army.

On the whole, it was better, in any circumstances,
that an Indian officer should command; and Lord
Canning was resolute that such should be the arrange-
ment. But he had been somewhat perplexed at first
as to the choice to be made, and he had consulted
Sir John Lawrence, as the man of aU others who,
not being by profession a soldier, had the finest
soldierly instincts and the keenest appreciation of tl*
essential qualities demanded for the command of s

THE QUESTION OF COMMAND.

419

an expedition. What the great Punjahee adminis- 1 S 56 .
trator said in reply was an utterance of good sense
and good feeling, the fulness of which, however, was
not then as discernible as it now is, viewed by the
light of intervening history. About the answer to be
given there was no doubt ; but clearly there was some
difEiculty. For the man whom of all men in India he
held to be best fitted for the work in hand was his
own brother. Sir Henry Lawrence; and if he could Heury
go, accompanied by Colonel Sydney Cotton, aU would
be well. “ Cotton,” wrote John Lawrence to the
Governor-Greneral, “ is one of the best officers I have
seen in India. He is a thorough soldier, loves his
profession, and has considerable administrative talent.

Of aU the officers I have noted, with one exception,

Sydney Cotton is the best.” But his experiences,
great as they were, had not lain in the line of diplo-
matic action, and, if it were necessary, as Lawrence
believed, to unite the political and the military au-
thority in the same person. Cotton, good soldier as he
was, might clearly lack some of the essential qualifi-
cations for the double office. So John Lawrence pro-
ceeded to say: “ The man whom I would name for
the command of such an expedition is my brother
Henry. I can assure your lordship that I am not in
the slightest degree biased in his favour. He has
seen a good deal of service, having been in the first
Burmese war, in the second Afghan war, and in both
the Sutlej campaigns. He is not an officer of much
practical knowledge, except in his own branch (the
Artillery), and he is not fond of details. But, on the
other hand, he has great natural ability, immense
force of character, is very popular in his service, has
large political acumen, and much administrative
ability. I do not think that there is a military man

420

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTIKT.

1866 . in India wlio is his equal in these points. He is also
in possession of his full vigour, both of mind and
body, and there is not a good soldier of the Bengal
Army, in the Punjab or perhaps in Upper India, but
would volunteer to serve under him. With him as
the Commander, and Sydney Cotton as the Second-
in-Command, the arrangement would be complete.
Cotton is master of all technical details of every arm
of the service, and devotes his entire energies and
thoughts to the welfare of his soldiers.”

AH this might have been misunderstood; and a
little man, in such a case, would perhaps have hesi-
tated to recommend his brother ; but John Lawrence
knew that the advice was good, and that he was in-
capable of ojQfering it if it had not been. “ If I know
myself,” he wrote, “ I would revolt against such con-
duct.” But though strong in the conviction that of
aU men living Henry Lawrence was tl^e best suited to
the work in hand, he was loud in his praise of other
good officers, and had various plans to recommend,
any one of which might have a successful issue. If
Sydney Cotton were sent in command, it would be
well to associate with him such an officer as Herbert
Edwardes, in the character of political adviser. “ But,
in such matters,” said John Lawrence, “unity in
council and action is of the highest importance, and
a commander who unites the military and political
functions is most desirable. If your lordship does
not take my brother, and Outram is available, I
would be inclined to recommend him. I never met
this officer; but he has a high reputation.” And
John Jacob, as having much military ability and con-
siderable political experience, was a man not to be
overlooked in the account of available capacity for
such an enterprise.

LORD ELPHINSTONE iND GENERAL STALKER. 421

But not only in Calcutta and in the Punjab was 1856.
this question of the comnaand of the expedition being
considered. It was well pondered at Bombay and in
England, taking a shape eventually to overrule all
other decisions. The expedition was to sail from
Bombay, and aU the arrangements for its organisation
and equipment were proceeding there. Lord Elphin- Lord
stone was Governor of that Presidency. Twenty years
before he had been Governor of Madras. At that time
he was young, and not so serious and sedate as some
people thought the head of a Government ought to
be. “We want a Governor,” it was said, somewhat
bitterly, “ and they send us a Guardsman ; we want
a statesman, and they send us a dancer.” But he had
ripened into what these people wanted, and now with
a higher sense of the responsibilities of office, with
a keener pleasure in his work, and a statesmanlike
assiduity, for which the companions of his youth had
not given him credit, he was, a second time, ad-
ministering the affairs of an Indian Presidency, and
busying himself with our external relations. The
troops to be despatched, in the first instance, to the
Persian Gulf were mainly Bombay troops, and it
seemed fitting that the choice of a Commander should
be made from the Bombay Army. If under stress
of circumstance the war should assume more im-
portant dimensions, and the military force be pro-
portionably extended, another selection might be
made. But meanwhile, Elphinstone was requested
to name some , officer attached to his own Presidency,
in whom the troops of all arms would have common
confidence. So he named General Stalker, not with-
Dut a pang of regret that he could not select Colonel
Hancock — Hancock, the Adjutant-General of the
Bombay Ariny— -whom iU health was driving to Eng-

422

OUTBKEAi; OF THE MUTINT

1856. land. Stalker was the senior of the available officers,
so there were no heart-burnings from supersession;
he had seen much service, he was experienced in com-
matid, and it was believed that the appointment
would be both a popular and a safe one. “I hear
favourable accounts of his good sense and temper,”
said Lord Canning ; “ and that is what is wanted for
the service before him, which wiE require more of
patient and enduring than of brilliant qualities.”

James So General Stalker was appointed to the command
atram. expedition to the Persian Gulf. But whilst

these and other arrangements were being made in
India, in the belief that ere long they would be
merged into others of a more comprehensive cha-
racter, the question of the chief command was being
solved in England in a manner hardly anticipated
by the Governor-General. In the month of May he
had taken leave of Sir James Outram, with painful
misgivings raised in his mind by the sight of the Gene-
ral’s shattered frame and feeble bearing. He had sus-
pected that the mischief was far greater than Outram
himself acknowledged or believed, and thought that
years must elapse before he would be fit again for
active service. And so thought all his friends in Eng-
land. He appeared among them as the wreck only of
the strong man who had left them a short time before ;
and they grieved to see the too visible signs of weak-
ness and suffering which every look and gesture af-
forded, The summer faded into autumn ; but there
was little change for the better apparent in his outer
aspect, when suddenly they were startled by the an-
nouncement that he was about forthwith to proceed
to the Persian Gulf and take command of the ex-
pedition.

Nobody knew, nobody knows, how it happened

SIK JAMES OUTEAM,

423

that suddenly in this conjuncture, James Outram IS50.
shook off the incumbrances of disease, rose up from
the prostration of the sick-room, and stood erect,
active, robust before the world with the harness of
war on his back. It was the autumnal season, when
men scatter and disperse themselves in strange places,
and elude in a vagrant life the rumours of the distant
world ; so there were many friends who, having left
him at the summer’s close a feeble invalid, were struck
with a strange surprise when, returned or returning
homewards, they were met by the news that Outram
had gone or was going to Persia to take command of
the invading force. The wonder soon gave place to
delight ; for they knew that though he was moved by
strong ambitions, there was ever within him a sense
of duty still stronger, and that on no account would
he jeopardise the interests of the State by taking upon
himself responsibilities which he had not full assurance
in his inmost self of his ample competence to dis-
charge. And so it was. The sound of the distant
strife had rekindled aU his smouldering energies.

There was work to be done, and he felt that he could
do it. On the pleasant Brighton esplanade, saunter-
ing alone meditative, or perhaps in the stimulating
companionship of a stalwart friend and high func-
tionary, the Chairman of the Court of Directors of the Colonel
East India Company, Master of Masters, new hppes®^^®®'
were wafred upon him with the sea-breezes, and his
step grew firmer, his carriage more erect, as with
strong assurance of support from Leadenhall-street,
he resolved to tender his services to her Majesty’s
Government for employment in Persia with a joint
military and diplomatic command.

This was at the beginning of the last week of
October. On the 26th he wrote to Lord Canning

424

OUIBREAE OF THE MUTINT.

i866. that he purposed returning to India by the mail of
the 20th of December, “ having perfectly recovered
from the illness which drove him home.” And he
added, “ In the supposition that I may be more use-
fully employed with the array about to proceed to
Persia than necessary to your lordship in Oude, where
everything is progressing so satisfactorily, I have
offered my services to the President (of the Board of
Control), should it be deemed advisable to entrust to
me diplomatic powers in conjunction with the military
command, and I believe that, should your lordship be
disposed so to employ me, the home authorities would
not object. In that case your lordship’s commands
would meet me at Aden, whence I would at once
proceed to Bombay.”*

This letter reached Calcutta on the 2nd December.
By the outgoing mail of the 8th, Lord Canning wrote
to Outram at Aden, rejoicing in his complete recovery,
“ on every account, public and private,” but question-
ing the policy of the Persian appointment. The ex-
pedition, he said, was not likely to increase in magni-
tude; it was not probable that there would be any
operations beyond the seaboard during the winter, or
that any diplomatic action would be taken to call for
the employment of a high political functionary ; if,
indeed, overtures were to be made, they would most
probably be addressed through some friendly power to
London ; there would be little scope, therefore, for his
services with the Persian expedition, and it would be
better, therefore, that he should return to his old ap-
pointment. “ Oude is completely tranquil,” wrote Lord
Canning, “ and generally prospering. Nevertheless,

* So full was Outratn at this time advent of the happy day of release,
^ the thought of his departure ia that he dated this letter “Decem-
Decemher, and so eager for the - her” instead of October.

APPOINTMENT TO THE PEESIAN COMMAND.

425

I shall he very glad to see you resume your command 1856.
there.” The fact was that the Administration was by
this time plunged into such a hopeless condition of
internecine strife, that the Governor-General could
in no way see any outlet of escape from the per-
plexities besetting him except by the removal of
Chief-Commissioner Jackson ; and now here was the
opportunity, for which he had been waiting, to ac-
complish this end in an easy natural manner, without
any ofSicial scandal, or the infliction of any personal
pain.

But it was not to be so accomplished. Before the
end of November the question of Outram’s command
of the Persian expedition had been fully discussed in
the English Cabinet. Downing-street had laid fast
hold of the idea, and pronounced its full satisfaction
with it. Her Majesty the Queen had stamped the
commission with the seal of her approbation, and the
public voice, with one accord, had proclaimed that a
good thing had been done, and that the right man
would soon be in the right place. That it was thus
virtually settled, past recal, went out, under the Pre-
sident’s hand by the mail of the 26th of November,
and greeted Lord Canning with the new year. Tn
official language, however, of Court of Directors, or
Secret Committee thereof, it took the shape not of an
announcement of a thing done, but of a recommenda-
tion that it should be done ; for it was substantially an
interference with the prerogative of the Governor-
General, and was to be softened down so as in no wise
to ^ve offence. But Lord Canning was not a man,
in such a case, to raise a question of privilege, or,
assured that it was, actually or presumedly, for the
official good, to shoot out any porcupine-quills from
his wounded official dignity. He took the interference

426

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

1856. tn, good part ; thanked the Chairman for the delieacy
with which it had been communicated, and promised
to give Outram his best support. He had doubted,
he said, whether Outram’s health and strength would
be sufficient to bear the burdens that would he im-
posed upon him. “But the Queen’s Government,”
he continued, “ and the Secret Committee have seen
him in recovered health, and if they are satisfied that
he is in a condition to undertake the labour and trial
of such a command, without risk to the interest con-
fided to him, I have no objection to make, nor any
wish to shake myself clear of responsibility.” And
then, with a reference to a memorandum on the future
conduct of the campaign which Outram had drawn
up in England, the Governor-General added, “ It is a
pleasure to me to declare that I have been greatly
struck by aU that has proceeded from General Outram
. in regard to future operations in Persia. I think his
plans excellent, pradent for the present, and capable
of easy expansion hereafter, and the means which he
proposes for carrying them out for the most part well
suited. For everything that I have yet heard of his
proposals he shall have my cordial support.”

1857. Whilst the first division of the expeditionary force
Ccntral-Asian under Stalker was commencing operations with good
Pokey. success in the Persian Gulf, the new year found

Outram at Bombay superintending the despatch of
the second. But it was not only by these move-
ments from the sea-board that an impression was
now to he made on the fears of the Court of Teheran.
Diplomacy was to do its work in the country which
lay between India and Persia. Eeluctant as he had
been, in the earlier part of the year, to commit him-
self to any decided course of Central-Asian policy.
Lord Canning now began to discern more clearly

CENTRAL-ASIAN POLICT.

427

tli'e benefits that might arise from a friendly alliance
with the Ameer of Caubul. There was no longer any
chance of a pacific solution of our difiicultios. War
had, been proclaimed. Herat had fallen. Dost Ma-
homed. had put forth plentiful indications of a strong
desire for an English alliance; and the English Go-
vernment at home appeared to be not unwilling to
meet his wishes. That some action must now be
taken in that direction was certain. Already had
arms and money been sent into Afghanistan ; but
ivith no specific undertaking on the one side or the
other, and it appeared desirable to put the matter
now upon a more secure and a more dignified footing
than that of temporary shifts and expedients. But
there were great diversities of opinion as to the shape
which should be taken by British action in the
Afghan countries. Lord Canning had always had at
least one clear conception about the matter ; that it
was better to do little than to do much, and wise not
to do that little a day sooner than was needed. The
terrible lessons which had been burnt into us fifteen
years before had lost none of their significance. The
warning voice was still sounding in our ears; the
saving hand was still beckoning us away from those
gloomy passes. It could never again enter into our
imaginations to conceive the idea of turning back the
tide of Russo-Persian invasion by making war against
the national will and the substantive Government of ■
the Afghans. But the monitions of the Past did not
stop there. They cautioned us against ever sending
a single British regiment across the Afghan frontier.
Neither the Princes nor the People of Afghanistan
were to be trusted, if the memories of their wrong-s
were to be reawakened within them by the presencft
of that which had done them such grievous harm.

428

OUTBREAK OF TEE MUTINY.

1S56.

Dost

Alahomed.

So, altTiougli among the schemes which were dis-
cussed, and in some military quarters advocated, was
the project of an auxiliary British force, acting in
close alliance with the Afghans, it was never for a
moment seriously entertained in the Council Cham-
ber. But to assail Persia in some measure from that
side, whilst we were operating upon the sea-board ;
to recover Herat, and, at the same time, to occupy
some of the littoral provinces of the Persian Empire ;
was doubtless to put enormous pressure upon the
Shah, to hold him, as it were, in a vice, helpless and
agonised, and to extort from him all that we might
Avant. This, peradventure, might be done, by con-
tinuing to send British bayonets into Afghanistan,
but without, as of old, British valour to wield them ;
so many thousands of stands of arms, not so many
thousands of soldiers ; and British money, lakhs
upon lakhs, but no British hands to dispense it. In
a word, if we coAild manage successfully to subsidise
Dost Mahomed, and hold him, by the bonds of self-
interest, to a friendly covenant, whereby, whilst aid-
ing us he would aid himself, we might bring the war
much more rapidly to a conclusion than if no such
alliance were formed.

But there were strong doubts of the good faith of
Dost Mahomed. The wily old Ameer, it was said,
was waiting upon the shore of circumstance, willing
to sail in the same boat with us, if tide and stream
should be in our favour and a fair wind setting in
for success. For some time, there had been going on
between the Governor-General of India and the
Euler of Caubul certain passages of diplomatic
coquetry, which had resulted rather in a promise
of a close alliance, a kind of indefinite betrothal,
than in the actual accomplishment of the fact. We

DOST MAHOMED KHAN.

429

had condoned the offence committed by the Ameer
at the close of the last war in the Punjab, when he
had sent some of his best troops, in the uniforms of
our own slaughtered soldiers, to aid the Sikhs in
their efforts to expel us ; and whUst Dalhousie was
still the ruler of India, an engagement of general
amity had been negotiated by John Lawrence on the
one side, and Hyder Khan on the other, between the
English and the Afghans. It was probably intended,
with a forecast of the coming rupture with Persia,
that this should in time be expanded into a more
definite treaty with Dost Mahomed ; and more than
two years before the occasion actually arose, the sub-
sidising of the Ameer loomed in the distance.* It
was an old idea. Mr. Henry EUis had entertained
it; Sir John M’Neill had entertained it;f and if
Lord Auckland’s Secretaries had allowed him to
entertain it, it is probable that the events of which I
am about to write would never have afforded me
a subject of History. In an hour of miserable in-
fatuation, we had played the perilous game of King-
making, and had forced an unpopular pageant upon

It was talked of, indeed, before
the compact of 1855, but did not
form a part of it. In 1854 (June 19),
Sir Henry Lawrence wrote to the
author : “ I fancy that we shall have
some sort of Treaty with Dost Ma-
homed, unless Lord Dalhousie over-
reach himself by too great anxiety
and by agreeing to pay him a sub-
sidy. If Persia attack Afghanistan,
the help we should give the latter
should be by attacking Persia from
the Gulf. We should not send a
rupee or a man into Afghanistan.
We should express readiness to for-
give and forget, to cry quits in
Afghan matters, and pledge our-
selves to live as good neighbours in
future; but there ought to be no

interference beyond the passes, and
no backing of one party or an-
other.”

f One passage in Sir John
M'Neill’s early correspondence I
cannot help quoting. There is rare
prescience in it; ‘'Dost Mahomed
Khan, with a little aid from us,
could be put in possession of both
Candahar and Herat. I anxiously
hope that aid will not be witli-
held. A loan of money would pro-
bably enable him to do this, and
would give us a great hold upon
him. . * . Until Dost Mahomed or
some other Afghan shall have got
both Candahar aud Herat into his
hands, our position here must con-
tinue to be a false one.”

1849,

March 30,
1855.

430

OUTBKEAK OP THE MDTIUr.

1856. a reluctant people. Now, after bitter experience, we
were reverting to the first conception of our diplo-
matists ; but mild as comparatively the interference
was, it was held by some great authorities to be wiser
to leave Afghanistan and the Afghans altogether
alone. In spite of the present benefit to be derived
from applying in that quarter a blister to the side of
Persia, it might be better to suffer the old Ameer to
make the most of the crisis after his own fashion.
He would not fight our battles for us without sub-
stantial help ; but he might fight his own, and there
could be no time, for the extension of his dominion
to Herat, so opportune as that which saw Persia
entangled in a war with England. But Dost Ma-
homed had too clear a knowledge of the English,
and Afghan cupidity was too strong within him, to
suffer this gratuitous co-operation. He knew that, if
he waited, we should purchase his aid ; so he magni-
fied the difficulties of the march to Herat, talked of
the deficiency of his resources, and otherwise pre-
tended that he lacked strength for a successful enter-
prise without continuous pecuniary aid from the
English. "Whether, having received such assistance
from us, he would render effectual service in return
for it, seemed to some of our Indian statesmen ex-
tremely doubtful, for there was the lowest possible
estimate in their minds of Afghan truth and Afghan
honour. There was the fear that the old Ameer
would set an extravagant price on his services, and
that by disappointing his expectations, if not scout-
ing his pretensions, we might inopportunely excite
his animosities against us. Some, indeed, thought
that he looked eagerly to the conjuncture as one that
might, help him to realise his old day-dream, the
recovery of Peshawur, There was, in truth, no lack

HERBERT EDWARDES.

of sagacity in ttiese anticipations; but, perhaps, at 1S5G.

the bottom of them there lay too deep a distrust of
the personal character of the Ameer, He had, in all
candour it must he admitted, too much reason to
doubt the good faith of the English. He could
fathom the depths of our selfishness as well as we
could fathom the depths of his guile. In truth, there
were causes of mutual suspicion ; and little good was
likely to come from the distant fencing of diplomatic
correspondence. So at last it was resolved to test
the sincerity of the Ameer by inviting him to a con-
ference on the frontier.

At that time, Herbert Edwardes, he of whose Herbert
glorious youthfid impulses I have spoken in the first
chapter of this work, was Commissioner of Peshawur.

He had grown, by good-service brevet, rather than
by the slow process of regimental promotion, from
Lieutenant to Lieutenant-Colonel. His career had
been a prosperous one, and its prosperity was well
deserved. The great reputation which he had gained
as an ambitious subaltern, brought down upon him
at one time a shower of small jealousies and detrac-
tions. He had been feasted and flattered in England,
and there were some who, doubtless, with a certain
self-consciousness of what would be likely to flow
from such adulations, said that his head was turned,
and that he had been overrated. But one, the noble
helpmate of a truly noble man, wrote to me at this Honoria
time, as one, however, not doubting, for I had like
faith, that Herbert Edwardes was one of Nature’s
true nobility, and that surely I should live to know
it. It was right. Under the Lawrences, Henry and
John, both of whom he dearly loved, he grew to be
one of the main piUars of the Punjabee Administra.
tion ; and now he was in charge of that part of the

432

OTITBREAK OT THE MDTINT.

1856. old dominions of Runjit Singh which lay beyond
the Indus ; the Proconsulate of Peshawur. Planted
thus upon the frontier of Afghanistan, it was one Of
his special duties to watch the progress of events in
that country, and duly to report upon them to the
higher authorities. Of direct diplomatic action there
had been little or none; hut no one knew what a
day might produce, and it was ever -^erefore among
the responsibilities of the Peshawur Commissioner to
be well versed in the pohtics of Caubul, and pre-
pared, in any conjuncture, to counsel the course to he
taken hy the British Government.

For some time there had been much to observe
and much to report, and now a conjuncture had
arisen, which seemed to require from us that we
should act. Persia was doing all that could be done
to enlist the sympathies of Central Asia on her side,
even in the far off regions of Bokhara and Kokund,
by sending abroad, as a proof of the dangers of Eng-
lish friendship, copies of the pro-Christian Firman
of the Sultan, which had been issued at the close of
the Russian war. It was fortunate, therefore, that at
this time the political animosities of the Afghans
were strongly excited against the Persians, for, per-
haps, under such pressure, the chronic sectarian jea-
lousies which kept the two nations apart might for a
while have been merged in a common religious
hatred of the Feringhees, A very little done, or left
undone on our part, to offend the old Ameer, might
have lost to us for ever the only serviceable Mahome-
dan alliance that could have availed us in such a
crisis. To no man was the value of this alliance so
apparent as to Herbert Edwardes ; no man pressed
its importance so earnestly upon the Governor-Gene-
ral. He believed that Dost Mahomed would respond

INVITATION TO DOST MAHOMED.

433

witli pleasure to an invitation to meet on the
frontier of the two States a representative of the
British Government, and to discuss the terms of a
friendly alliance ; and he recommended that this in-
vitation should be sent to him. Reluctant as Lord
Canning had been in the earlier part of the year to
commit himself to any decided course of Afghan
policy, he now before the close of it, in the altered
circumstances that had arisen, yielded to this sug-
gestion, and afterwards, with that frankness which sat
so becomingly upon him, gracefully acknowledged
its wisdom, and thanked the suggester.

So Dost Mahomed was invited to a conference at
Peshawur. He was, if willing to meet the repre-
sentatives of the British Government, to discuss per-
sonally with them the terms of the alliance. Either
Sir John Lawrence, accompanied by Colonel Ed-
wardes, or Colonel Edwardes alone, as might be de-
termined between them, was to meet the old Ameer
on the frontier, to feel his pulse, and to prescribe
accordingly. It would have been a great oppor-
tunity for the younger man j but Edwardes, to whom
the decision was left by Lawrence, for ever giving
the lie to all that had been charged against him on
the score of vanity and self-assertion, strongly urged
that the Mission should be headed by his beloved
Chief. Lawrence much doubting, however, whether
the Ameer would come, and little expecting a suc-
cessful issue if he should come, lauded the magna-
nimity of his more sanguine friend, and prepared
himself with aU the earnestness of his nature to prove
the groundlessness of his own anticipations of failure.

They were groundless. The Ameer accepted the .
invitation, marched down with two of his sons, some
of his chosen counsellors, and a body of picked troops,

2 p

issr.

434

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

uhe frontier ; arid on the fii’st day of the new year
received in the Khyhur Pass the first visit of the
British Commissioners. It was with no common in-
terest that Lawrence, Edwardes, Sydney Cotton, and
the other English oflficers who accompanied them,
looked into the face of the old Ameer, whose white
heard and venerable aspect had, fifteen years before,
been so familiar to the eyes of the dwellers in Cal-
cutta, and who in his fallen fortunes, half-prisoner
and half-guest, had been a not unworthy object of
our sympathies. When, nearly half a century before,
the representatives of the British Government had
been received almost on the same spot by Shah
Soojah, they had found the Caubul ruler arrayed in
gorgeous apparel, his whole person a blaze of jewel-
lery, with the Koh-i-noor outshining it all ; but the
English gentlemen now saw before them only a hale
old man, very simply attired in a garment of the
coarse camel-hair of the country. They found him
full of energy, full of sagacity ; courteous and friendly
in his outer manner ; glad to welcome them to his
camp, it was only a visit of ceremony ; repaid, two
days later, by the Ameer, who was received in the
grand English style near Peshawur. Our troops
formed a street more than a mile long, and after
the Durbar marched past the Ameer and his host in
review order. More than seven thousand British
fighting men were assembled there, and among them
were three complete European regiments, whose
steady discipline, and solidity, and fine soldierly
bearing, made a strong impression on the minds of
the Afghan visitors, from the aged Ameer himself to
the youngest trooper of his escort.

The formal interviews thus accomplished, the so-
nous business of the conference commenced on the

THE PESHAWUR CONFEEENCES.

435

5th of January. The Ameer had pitched his Camp
at Jumrood, and there Lawrence and Edwardes
visited him, accompanied by Major Lumsden of the
Guides. Dost Mahomed, his sons standing behind
him, and a few chosen Sirdars on his left, opened the
discussions with a long exposition of the recent
struggles in Herat, and of the policy which he had
himself pursued. He had entertained no schemes of
conquest embracing that principality. The move-
ments which the Persians had thus pretended to in-
terpret were directed only towards Candahar. But
he frankly avowed his eager longing to recover
Herat ; and, please God and the English, he would
take it from the Persians. Swearing by Allah and
the Prophet that, from that time, he would be our
friend, let aU the world be against him, he declared,
as his enthusiasm kindled, that let the English but
make a diversion in the Persian Gulf and supply him
with money and with arms, he would mine the walls
of Herat, blow up the towers, and take the place at
the point of the sword ; or raise such a flame in the
surrounding country as fairly to burn the Persians
out of it. The Toorcomans and the Usbegs would
rise at his bidding, and join against a common foe.

From that distant-frontier post, on the very out-
skirts of our empire, the telegraphic wires ran right
up to the vice-regal capital, and the Governor-Gene-
ral and the Chief Commissioner were corresponding
by the “ lightning post” between Calcutta and Pesha-
war. So it happened that whilst John Lawrence and
Dost Mahomed were in conference, a horseman gal-
loped up with a message from the former, despatched
on the preceding day. In it Lord Canning told
Lawrence that a reinforcement of five thousand men
would be sent as quickly as possible to the Persian

2 F 2

436

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

1857 Gulf; and that amongst the conditions of Peace with
Persia would be a stipulation that she should with-
draw her troops from Herat, and renounce for ever
her pretensions to interfere with Afghanistan. The
significant words, “ You may make use of this,” were
included in the message. But the time had not then
come for the best use to be made of it ; so John
Lawrence, reserving the rest for more opportune
disclosure, announced only that the reinforcements
were about to be despatched to the Gulf. It was his
design, at that first meeting, to elicit the views and
intentions of the Ameer rather than to disclose those
of his own Government.* So, making no promises of
any kind, he indicated the difficulties that seemed to
lie in the way of the Afghan ruler, and asked for a
recital of the means and resources, by which they
were to be overcome, already at his disposal, and the
extent of the aid which he would require from the
English. But this was too momentous a question to
be answered, without much thought and calculation ;
so the Ameer, seeking time for deliberation, said that
he would unfold his views fuUy at the next meeting ;
and so the conference broke up for the day.

Januaty?, On the 7th, Dost Mahomed, attended by a few
chosen counsellors, visited the British Camp, and the
conferences were renewed in the Chief Commissioner's
tent. Pursuing the old process of drawing-out, John
Lawrence, at the outset, reminded the Ameer of his

* This course, though doubtless can contribute towards it, even whilst
the one that would have suggested it continues the same. For these
itself to John Lawrence’s unaided reasons, it is necessary first that we
judgment, was expressly dictated by should know wliat he can do ; and
Lord Canning; who had written on next, that we should come to a clear
the 2nd of December to the Chief understanding as to the conditions
Commissioner, saying, "Itisnotcer- upon which he shall receive aid in
tain that our object will continue the doing it. The meeting ought to clear
same as the Ameer’s; neither is it up the first point at once.”-~m
certain to what extent the Ameer Correspondence,

VIEWS OF THE AMEER.

487

promise to state fully his views and intentions; but
it required some resolution and perseverance to keep
the old Afghan to this point, and it was not without
difficulty that the promised revelation was extorted
from him. At last he explained that, owing to the
state of the season, he could not commence his march
on Herat until after the expiration of a period of two
months ; grass and young grain would then be spring-
ing up, and with the aid of some not very elaborate
commissariat arrangements, he would be able to find
provisions for his troops ; that he proposed to march
one column from Balkh and another from Candahar.
The muster-roll of his troops showed some thirty-five
thousand men and sixty guns. These, he said, should
be raised to fifty thousand men with a hundred guns ;
four-fifths of the men and nearly the whole of the
guns should, he said, be moved upon Herat. “ But,”
he added, “ if you say take more troops, I will take
more ; if you say less will suffice, I will take less. I
have given you my own opinion, but you Sahibs
know Persia best.” But when pressed for a state-
ment of the amount of aid he would require, he said,
that on the morrow morning his son, Azim Jah,
would wait upon the English gentlemen with aU the
required information in a digested form, in order that
they might judge for themselves.

So the conference broke up ; and on the following
day the Ameer’s sons, accompanied by a few of his
ministers, waited upon John Lawrence, and laid
before him a detailed statement of the finances of
Afghanistan, and of the military resources of the
empire ; together with an estimate of the aid that
would be required from the English to enable the
Afghans to drive the Persians out of Herat, and to
hold their own against all comers. The aid that was

1857.

438

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTIXT.

1867. thus sought amounted in money to sixty-four lakhs
of rupees a year, Avhilst the war lasted, and in nauni-
tions to more than fifty guns, eight thousand stands of
small arms, and ammunition at discretion. It was more
than the English Government were likely to be will-
ing to give, but not more than appeared really to be
wanted. The largeness of the demand, however, sug-
gested the idea of a less extensive enterprise ; and so
Lawrence asked what would be required to enable
the Afghans, abandoning all aggressive movements,
to hold their own, without danger of encroachments
from the westward. The question was not a welcome
one. The Afghans were hot for an advance on Herat.
If they were to sit down, within their own dominions,
the Persians would assuredly occupy Furrah. It was
for the English, of course, to decide upon the course
to be pursued, but it was more in accordance with
the genius and temper of the Afghans to take vigorous
action in advance. Still, however, John Lawrence
pressed for a statement of the requirements of the Af-
ghans if a strictly defensive policy were maintained.
The Sirdars could give no answer without consulting
the Ameer, so the conference broke up; and next
day they returned with the statement that, in addi-
tion to what had already been supplied, four thou-
sand muskets would be required, and money to pay
eight thousand regular troops; one-half to be em-
ployed in the Candahar country, and the other half
in Balkh. But still they were eager for the larger
enterprise ; and one of them whispered to Edwardes
that the enmity between the Afghans and the Persians
was not merely an affair of this world, for that
Sheeahs and Sconces must always hate each other in
the world to come. There was nothing more now
to be said. The Afghans, on their part, had made

TELEGEAPHIC ACTION.

439

kno\vn their wishes ; and all the English gentlemen 1857,
could say in reply was, that they would at once com-
municate with their Government.

So the telegraphic wires were again set in motion,
and the substance of what had passed at the two last
meetings was communicated to the Governor-General
at Calcutta. Then there was doubt in the Council
Chamber. Would it be better to await detailed re-
ports from Peshawur by post, or at once to send
telegraphic instructions to Sir John Lawrence ? The
former course was determined upon, and a message
to that effect despatched to Peshawur. Lawrence
had sent in detailed reports of the meetings, and had
added to the last an expression of his own views as to
what should be done. He recommended that as-
sistance on the larger scale, for the siege of Herat,
should not be given to Dost Mahomed, but that we
should give him the four thousand muskets that he
required, and an annual subsidy of twelve lakhs of
rupees, so long as England and Persia might be at
war with each other. But it did not seem to him to
be wise to await the slow process of correspondence
by letter. The Ameer was eager to depart ; and some
time must be necessarily occupied in the negotiation
of a formal agreement. So Lawrence telegraphed
the substance of his recommendation to Calcutta,
urged that nothing would be gained by awaiting his
more detailed reports, and asked permission to com-
municate to the Ameer the proposal which he thought
it best to make. To this a message was promptly
returned, saying: “You may tell the Ameer that
the terms are agreed to. Four thousand stand of
arms and twelve lakhs a year, whilst England is at
war with Persia. You will proceed to arrange the
articles of agreement and report them by telegraph.”

440

OUTBREAK OE THE MUTINY.

i! 557. This message was despatched on the 13th of
January. On the following morning Lawrence and
Edwardes proceeded to Dost Mahomed’s camp, and
unfolded to him the views and intentions of the
British Government. With less appearance of dis-
appointment than had been expected, the Ameer
assented to the abandonment of the expedition to
Herat, and accepted the modified proposal of the
English. But the despatch of a party of British
officers to Caubul, which was to form part of the
agreement, appeared to be distasteful to him. When
active offensive warfare against Persia had been con-
templated, he cherished the thought of their presence
■with his troops; but now the state of affairs was
altered. The point, however, was one not to be
yielded. If the British were to give the subsidy,
they were entitled to see it rightly appropriated.
Then the Ameer lowered his tone, and said that he
was ready to do what was expedient ; and finally he
agreed to all that was proposed. But next day, when
his son Azim Khan, accompanied by other chiefs,
•visited, according to agreement, the English Com-
missioners, to settle the precise terms of agreement,
the question of the Mission to Caubul was reopened.
It was urged that the appearance of British officers
at the Afghan capital might compromise the Ameer
either with his own people or with his English friends.
There would be danger in their path at Caubul ; but
at Candahar, threatened by the Persians, their pre-
sence would be better understood, and they might
abide in perfect security. Nearly fifteen years had
passed since our retributive Army had set its mark
upon 'the Afghan capital ; but S'till the hatred which
our usurpation had engendered was fresh in the
minds of the people, and Dost Mahomed knew that

THE mSSION TO CANDAHAE.

441

there were those in Cauhul whom he could not trust 1857.
within reach of an English throat. It was a sad
thought; and Lawrence could not but ask how the
alliance between the two nations could ever strike
deep root when in one country such suspicions and
animosities were never suffered to sleep. What the
English wanted was not a temporary alliance dic-
tated by an emergency of self-interest, but an en-
during friendship based upon mutual confidence and
respect. But Dost Mahomed knew the Afghans well,
and little wisdom would there have been in disre-
garding a warning which every Englishman’s heart
must have told him was an utterance of the voice of
truth. So it was resolved that, although we should
claim, and duly record, our right to send British
officers to Caubul, as to other parts of Afghanistan,
yet that practically the Mission should, in the first
instance, proceed only to Candahar. It was better
than that our officers should be smuggled into the
capital, surrounded by the Ameer’s troops, virtually
prisoners under the name of protected guests. There
was, at aU events, some definite meaning in their
proceeding to the more western city, for it was a
better point from which to observe the movements of
the Persians. But what route were they to take?

It was the Ameer’s wish that the Mission should pro-
ceed by way of the Bolan Pass ; but this, although
the route by which Shah Soojah and the Army of
the Indus had marched into Afghanistan, was said to
be entering the country by a back door. It was,
therefore, finally determined that the Mission should
proceed by way of the Paiwar Pass,* an unexplored

* It was deemed advisaHe that been traversed hy Europeans, and
the Mission should journey to Can- was consequently unknown ground,
dahar by the route of the Paiwar and full of interest to the British in
Pass, a road that had never before a military point of view, as being one

442

OUTBBEAK OF THE MUTINY.

18S7. road, to Candaliar ; and that Major Henry Lumsden,
of the Guide corps, an officer of great courage and
capacity, versed in the politics of Afghanistan, who
had been marked from the first for the conduct of
this enterprise, should be placed at its head. His
brother. Lieutenant Peter Lumsden, was to accom-
pany him, and Mr. Henry Bellew was selected to
take medical charge of the Mission ; a post of more
importance than it appears to be in an official gazette,
for in such diplomacies as these the Medicine-chest
and the Laneet are often more serviceable than the
Portfolio and the Pen.

On the 26th of January, the Articles of Agree-
ment, having by the aid of the telegraph been ap-
proved by the Government at Calcutta, were ready
for seal and signature ; and a meeting for the con-
clusion of the compact was held in Dost Mahomed’s
tent. In attendance on the Ameer were his son
Azim Khan and several of his chief counsellors,
whilst Lawrence, Edwardes, and Lumsden appeared
on behalf of the English. Written in Persian and
in English, the articles of agreement were read aloud
in Durbar. By these the Ameer engaged to maintain
a force of eighteen thousand men ; to allow British
officers to be stationed at Caubul, Candahar, or
Balkh, or wherever Afghan troops might be posted ;
to receive a Wakeel at Caubul, and to send one to
Calcutta ; and to communicate to the Government
of India any overtures that he might receive from
Persia and from the Allies of Persia during the war.
On their part, the English undertook, during the
continuance of hostilities, to pay to the Ameer a
monthly subsidy of a lakh of rupees, to send him

of the approaches by wliicb in- pire .” — Bellewh Journal of a PolitU
vading force firom the West might ■ cal Mission to Afgkanislan in 1857.
eater and attack their Indian Em-*

TUE TEEATr CONCLUDED.

443

four thousand stands of arms, and, as if the wrong 1S57
done had been all against us, to forget and for^ve
the past. It was explained that the British officers
would in the first instance proceed to Candahar ; and
with this assurance the Ameer was satisfied. So the
Articles of Agreement were signed and sealed. Then
came some discussion and some interchange of com-
pliments. A message from the Governor-General
had been received by telegraph, desiring Sir John
Lawrence to express to Dost Mahomed “ the satisfac-
tion which he had derived from his frank dealing,
and from the clear understanding on which affairs
Isad been placed,” together with the best wishes for
his health and long life, and a word of regret that he
had not himself been able to meet the Ameer. The
message was now delivered and received with mani-
fest gratification. It would have delighted him, he
said, to meet Lord Canning, but he could not expect
his Lordship to take so long a journey to see him.

He had known two Governor-Generals, Lord Auck-
land and Lord EUenborough, who had been kind to
him in old times ; he remembered also with gratitude
the kindness of two other English gentlemen, Mr.
Wilberforce Bird and Mr. Thoby Prinsep,* who had
paid him much attention in Calcutta. “ And now,”
he said, in conclusion, “I have made an alliance
with the British Government, and come what may, I
will keep it till death.” And the promise thus given
was never broken. He was true to the English
alliance to the last.

On the following day a Durbar was held in the Janiiai-y27,
Camp of the British Commissioner, and the chief
officers of the Ameer’s suite attended to take their
leave of the English gentlemen. Dost Mahomed had
* Then members of the Supreme Council of India,

444

OUTBREAK. OE THE MLUTINY.

1857. excused himself on the plea of age and infirmity.
The visit to Peshawur, with its attendant anxieties
and excitements, had visibly affected the Ameer’s
health. The hale old man, who, three or four weeks
before, had spent hours in the saddle, and seemed to
be full of health and energy, had lost much of his
bodily vigour and his elasticity of spirit. A sharp
attack of gout had prostrated him; and he seemed
to be growing impatient under his protracted deten-
tion in Camp. So the conclusion of the Terms of
Agreement was a manifest relief to him ; and it was
with no common satisfaction that, on the day follow-
ing the Farewell Durbar, he set his face towards
JeHalahad, carrying with him, in bills on Oaubul,
a lakh of rupees and some costly presents from the
British Government.*

Nor was the gratification experienced at this time
confined to the Ameer’s camp. Lawrence and Ed-
wardes were well pleased to tWk that all had gone
off so smoothly ; that the friendship of the Afghans
had been secured at no very extravagant cost ; and
that, on the whole, although Dost Mahomed had not
obtained all that he had asked, he had taken his
departure tolerably well satisfied with the favourable
issue of the meeting. Lord Caiming, too, was more
than well satisfied with the manner in which the
negotiations had been conducted, and with the ap-
parent result. He was one not stinting in free out-
spoken expressions of praise and gratitude to those -
who did good service to his Government; and, both

^ The only present made by the ing the ‘‘pins and needles” brought
Afghan ruler to his allies consisted by Bumes, which had caused so much
of a hatch of wretched horses, all of disappointment some twenty years
which, John Lawrence wrote, were before at Oaubul, did not expect, ou
spavined or worn out. The whole this occasion, to be the recipient of
were sold for not more th,an 100^. anything more valuable.

Perhaps Dost Mahomed, remember-

THMKS OF THE GOVEEXOR-GENERAL.

445

in public and private letters, he cordially thanked 1867.
the Commissioners, even before their -work was done,
for the admirable judgment and good tact which
they had displayed at the conferences; giving an
especial word of thanks to Edwardes as the original
suggester of the meeting,* and, it might have been
added, the originator of the new policy which had
more recently been observed towards the Afghans.

To Major Lumsden he wrote, at the same time, a
letter of kindly encouragement and good advice,
cordially approving the selection, “ not only from his
trust in Sir John Lawrence’s judgment on such
matters, but from everything that the Governor-
General had been able to hear of Lumsden from
those who knew him.” He knew the power of such
words ; as a statesman he felt assured that they
would bear good fruit ; but as a man he uttered
them from the kindness of his heart.

So Dost Mahomed set his face towards Caubul, and
Sir John Lawrence, after a month of administrative
journeying about the province, returned to Lahore.

It need be no subject of surprise if the latter, as he
went about his work, thinking of all that had been
done at Peshawur, sometimes asked himself. What
good? and wished that the monthly lakh of rupees
to be expended on the Afghan Army were available

^ must ask you,” wrote Lord one. It would be a good thing if all
Canning to Colonel Edwardes on the diplomatic conferences were con-
19th of January, “to accept my best ducted so satisfactorily, and set forth
thanks for the part you have taken in as lucidly as these have been.” All
the recent negotiations, and for their this was well deserved ; for the
satisfactory issue, I feel the. more policy was emphatically Edwardes’s
bound to do this, because the first policy; he had been the first to re-
suggestion of a meeting came from commend, in Lord Dalhousie’s time,
you; and so far as I can judge from that we should try the effect of trust-
the reports as yet received, and from ing the Afghans, and his recoin-
the tone of the discussion shown in mendations had resulted in the ge-
them, I believe that the suggestion neral compact of 1855,
has proved a very wise and useful

446

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

1S57. for tte improvement of the province under his
charge; for he had never liked the project from the
beginning. He had no faith in Dost Mahomed. He
had detected him in at least one palpable falsehood,
and the detection had excited in the Ameer no sense
of shame, but rather a feeling of admiration at the
clever incredulity of the Feringhees. The expulsion
of the Persians from Herat, or even the raising of the
Turcoman tribes, was, in Lawrence’s opinion, so far
beyond the power of the Ameer, that he believed, on
the other hand, that the Persians would have little
difficulty in seizing Candahar. This belief in the
weakness of Dost Mahomed was based upon a some-
what exaggerated estimate of the disunion among
the chief people of the country. But even if the
Ameer had the power, Lawrence could not believe
that he had the wUl to serve the British ; and he
doubted, therefore, whether the subsidy would pro-
duce any tangible results. As to the question of the
future of Herat, it had never even approached a solu-
tion. Dost Mahomed had been assured that the
evacuation of the place by the Persians would be an
essential condition of peace; but he had not been
able to offer, without manifest doubt and hesitation,
any suggestion as to the best means of providing for
its future government. In truth, there was a lack of
available capacity in the direction in which it was
most natural that we should look for a new ruler.
When the Ameer was asked if there was any member
of Yar Mahomed s family to whom the government
could be entrusted, he replied that there was a
brother of Syud Mahomed, but that, if possible, he
was a greater reprobate and a greater fool than that
unlucky chief. Syud Mahomed, however, had left a

THE FUTURE OF HERAT.

447

son, a boy of some ten years, in -whose name a com- ISf?.
petent Wuzeer might administer the affairs of the
principality; but a competent Wuzeer was not to be
found more readily than a competent Prince. The
future of Herat was, therefore, left to the develop-
ment of the Chapter of Accidents. In the mean
while, Lord Canning, though he had slowly come to
this point, believed that the subsidising of the Ameer
was not a bad stroke of policy. It bound the Afghan
ruler by strong ties of self-interest to remain faithful
to the British Government. Even neutrality was
great gain at a time when Persia was doing her best
to raise a fervour of religious hatred against the
English throughout all the countries of Central Asia.

The very knowledge, indeed, of the fact that Dost
Mahomed had gone do-ro to Peshawur to negotiate a
closer alliance with the British, must have had a
moral effect at Teheran by no means conducive to an
increased confidence in the Shah’s powers of resist-
ance. Altogether, it was not an inefficacious, whilst
comparatively it was an inexpensive, mode of pressing
upon Persia from the side of Afghanistan. But whilst
he went thus far. Lord Canning was resolute to go
no farther. He had made up his mind that the in-
dependence of Herat could be written only on sand ;
that the waves of circumstance from one’ direction or
another must utterly efface it after a while ; and that
it would be wiser to abandon an effort that was so
fraught with tribulation, and so sure to result in
failure. Certain he was that nothing would ever in-
duce biTTi to send a single regiment into Afghanistan
to maintain the integrity of a petty state, which
Nature seemed to have intended to be a part of
Persia or a part of Afghanistan, and which, as in a

448

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

1S57. national and religious sense it assuredly belonged to
tbe latter, was certain, if left to itself, eventually to
faU into tbe right hands.*

The question WMlst thus, in this first month of the new year,
Lord Canning was eagerly watching the progress of
sionersMp. his foreign policy, he was grappling mth the great
difiiculty which beset his internal administration.
The question of the Persian command had been
settled ; but it unsettled, by its solution, that other
question of the Oude Coinmissionership. It was
clearer than ever that Jackson must be removed ; but
it was no longer possible that his tenure of ofBice
should come to a natural end and peacefully die out.
It was necessary to lay violent hands upon it, and
bring it to an ignominious close. The necessity was
painful to Lord Canning; but the interests of the
State demanded it, and the Governor-General, in such
a case, properly overrode the man. Therefore, as
Outram could not quietly resume his old seat, another
officer was to be found to take the place of Commis-
sioner Jackson. Ample admissions were there of zeal
and ability, of assiduous devotion to public business,
of much good work well done in the province ; but
the tone and temper of the man, his contentious spirit,
his insolent treatment of his colleagues, were past bear-

* Dost Mahomed and his counsel- to place themselves in a better posi-
lors, during the conferences at Pesba- tion to demand from others a like
■wur, frequently asserted that Persia observance of treaty obligations. It
had, on tins as on a former occasion, may be noted here, that the Ameer
been instigated and aided by Russia told Lawrence at Peshawur that he
to occupy Herat. I can discern no would show him the letter which
evidence of this. Prince Gortscha- the unfortunate Russian diplomatist,
koff assured Lord Granville at Mos- Tiktevitch, had carried with him to
eow that the Russian minister at Caubul from the Government of the
Teheran had urged the Persian Go- Czar. But he did not produce it
vernment to evacuate Herat, and so after all.

THE OUDE COMMISSIOKEESHIP.

449

ing ; and communication to that effect, with notice of 1857,
appointment of a successor, was made to him in due
course.

The choice was an admirable one. It has been said
that in the spring of 1856, Sir Henry Lawrence had
offered his services to the Governor-General, to offi-
ciate as Chief Commissioner of Oude, in Outram’s
absence, and that the first disaster that befel Lord
Canning was that the offer was received too late.*

When Henry Lawrence found that it was so, he saw
at once the weak point of the arrangement, and an
idea struck him that if whilst the civil administration
of the province was placed in Jackson’s hands, he
himself were vested with political and military au-
thority in Oude, aU objects might be advantageously
secured. It was but a passing thought, a fleeting
suggestion; but it found expression in a letter ad-
dressed to the Governor-General, who said, “Two
Consuls and Two Tribunes have worked well enough
in old times, as we all know ; but Two Commissioners
at Lucknow would have been at a dead lock within a
month I could not have delayed for a day the send-
ing of a Third.” A truth not to be disputed. So
Henry Lawrence had fallen back upon his duties
among those intractable Rajpoots ; grieving over their
degeneracy, striving mightily, but with no great success,
to evolve something of good out of their transition-
state, and at last admitting that the peace and security
we had given them had not yet much improved the
race. All through the year he had gone on, in his
old earnest, unstinting way, doing what he could,
through divers channels of beneficence, alike for the
Ancient Houses and the national Chivalries, whereof
History and Tradition had given such grand accounts.

* page 398.

2 G

450

OUTBBUAK OF THE MUTINY.

185?'. But often had lie turned aside from the thought of
the Princes and the people by whom he was sur-
rounded to consider the general condition of our
empire in the East, and most of all our Military
System, wherein ho discerned some rottenness, which
needed to be arrested lest the entire edifice should
some day become nothing but a prostrate ruin.

But as the new year approached, certain prompt-
ings of failing health inwardly admonished him
that it would be well to turn his face towards Eng-
land for a while ; and he had just communicated his
wishes upon this score to the Governor-General, when
there sprung up a great need for his services on a
new and more hopeful field of action. So the answer
that went back contained the expression of a hope
that he would reconsider his determination to go
home and accept the Chief Commissionership of Oude.
“ There is no person in whose hands I would so gladly
Janvmry 19. and confidently place the charge,” wrote Lord Canning,
“ and my only scruple in offering it to you is, that I
am proposing that which will interfere with the im-
mediate recruiting of your health. But I will not for
this refrain from executing my intention to do so,
which was formed many days before I received your
letter.” And truly a most wise intention; formed
without any doubts and misgivings upon his part, for
he knew the real character of the man ; but not with-
out some counsel against it, given in perfect honesty
and good faith by one honest and faithful to the core,
but under a false impression, an error afterwards
frankly admitted. Had the counsellors been many,
and aU of the same singleness and sincerity, and the
same ripe experience, they could not have turned
Lord Canniug from his good purpose, or shaken his
conviction that he was right.

HENET LAWKENCE.

451

The invitation reached Henry Lawrence at Nee-
much. It came to him, weak and dispirited as he
was, with all the renCvating" influence of a breath of
his native air. It was to him what the distant sound
of the Persian war had been to James Outram. It
made the blood course less languidly through his
veins. With such work as lay before him in Oude, he
could not be an invalid. The head-shakings of the
medical profession were nothing, if the practitioners
learned in physical symptoms took no account of the
action of the mind. It was the spirit, not the flesh,
that required rousing. Two great clouds, coming
from opposite directions, had overshadowed his life,
blighting both his honourable ambitions and his
domestic affections ; a heavy disappointment followed
by a cruel loss. The black-edged paper on which he
wrote still spoke of the latter; a certain sadness of
tone in all his allusions to his public life told how
fresh were the wounds of the former. “ Annoyances
try me much more than work,” he now wrote to Lord
Canning. “ Work does not oppress me.” He could
work at his desk, he said, for twelve or fifteen hours
at a time. He had just made a tour of Guzrat, riding
thirty or forty miles a day, sometimes being in the
saddle from morning to night, or from night to morn-
ing. “ But,” he added, “ ever since I was so cavalierly
elbowed out of the Punjab, I have fretted even to the
injury of my health. Your lordship’s handsome letter
has quite relieved my mind on that point; so I re-
peat that if, on this explanation, you think fit to send
me to Oude, I am quite ready, and can be there
within twenty days of receiving your telegraphic
reply.”

The substance of this letter was telegraphed to
Calcutta, and it brought back a telegraphic answer.

2 g2

IS57.

452

OUTBBIAK 01’ THE MUTINY.

Mr. E. A.
Ileadc.

The convictions on both sides ■were so strong in
favour of the arrangement that it was not likely to
break down under any conditions or reservations on
either part ; and so it was settled that Henry Law-
rence should be Chief Commissioner of Oude. “I
am in great hopes,” wrote Lord Canning, “ that the
task being so thoroughly congenial to you, it mU sit
more lightly upon you than, measured by its labour
alone, might be expected; and as to my support,
you shall have it heartily. The field before you is a
noble one, fuU of interest and of opportunities for
good; and I look forward with the greatest con-
fidence to the results of your exertions in it.” So
Henry Lawrence prepared himself to proceed to
Lucknow, and was soon on his way thither by easy
stages ; for it was not desired that he should assume
office before the middle of the following month.
Halting at Bhurtpore, where he took counsel with the
Political agent and the Engineer officer, and did
much to give a right direction to their energies, he
proceeded thence to Agra, which was then the seat of
the Lieutenant-Governorship of the North-Western
Provinces. It was vividly remembered afterwards by
one old friend with whom he held sweet communion
at that time, that though his thoughts were pregnant
■with many grave matters begotten of the great Con-
dition-of-India Question, and though he conversed of
many things and many men, there was nothing that
seemed to press more heavily on his mind than an
anxious, uncertain feeling with respect to the state of
the Sepoy Army. There were few ci'\ilians in the
service who knew the Native soldier so well as this
friend ; and as they talked over certain manifest signs
' and symptoms, and narrated what they had seen and
heard, each saw plainly that there was a painful sense

AimiVAL OF LAWUEKCE AT LUCKNOW.

453

of coming danger in the other’s mind. For twelve
years Henry Lawrence had been publicly discoimsing
of the defects of our Indian military system, and
emphatically indicating the dangers which might
some day overtake the State in the most terrible of
all shapes, an outburst of the Native Soldiery and
he now playfully told his friend, but with more of
sadness than of pleasantry in his speech, that the
time was not far distant when the Sepoys would
hold him and the Lieutenant-Governor and other
“big Brahmins,” as hostages in the Fort of Agra,
until aU their demands were granted.

StUl thinking much of this, and mindful that in
the province to which he was proceeding he would
stand on vantage-ground for the clear discernment
of the real causes of the malady, Henry Lawrence
passed on to Lucknow. And before day had broken
on the 20th of March, he had been received, at the
Residency, by the man whom he had come to sup-
plant. There must have been pain and embarrass-
ment on both sides in such a meeting. But before
he had broken his fast, the new Commissioner sat
down and wrote a letter to Lord Canning, saying
that he had had two hours’ friendly conversation
with Mr. Jackson, who had received him alto-
gether “like a gentleman.” He had found a long
and encouraging letter from the Governor-General
awaiting him on his arrival; and now he emphati-
cally replied, “ With your lordship’s cordial support I

^ See Lawrence’s Essays, re- may surely be expected ^ from Na-
printed from the Calcutta Review: tives. We shall be unwise to wait,
‘‘ How unmindful we have been that for such occasion. Come if will^
what occurred in the city of Oanbul less anticipated, A Clive may not
may some day occur at Delhi, be then at hand.” The emphatic
Meerut, or Bareilly” (page 51). italics are Lawrence’s. Other pas-
Again: ** What the l^uropean ojBdcers sages to the same effect might be
have repeatedly done {i,e. mutinied) cited.

1857*

3857.

45‘i OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

have no fear of success.” His spirit rose as he thought
of the vrork before him. What that work was, what
he found done and what he found undone in the
province, when he assumed charge of his new of0.ce,
win be told in a subsequent page of this story.

"No better opportunity than
this ma^ be afforded for a note on
tlie opinions of Sir Henry Lawrence
with respect to the maintenance of
the Native States of India. Having
said elsewhere that he was on prin-
ciple opposed to the Annexation
Policy,” I recently elicited the fol-
lowing reply from a distinguished
writer miheMinbicr^h Review : “A
writer so well informed as Mr. Kaye
need not have thus held on to the
skirts of a popular delusion. The
course which Sir Henry Lawrence
favoured in respect to Oude, by what-
ever name it may be called, is plain
enough. It is a course which, if
submitted to the ‘Law Officers of the
Crown,’ as a question of international
law, w^ould, probably, receive from
these authorities some name harsher
than ‘ annexation,’ ” To this I think
it right to reply, that as any opinion
which I may have formed of the
sentiments, on this or any other sub-
ject, of Sir Henry Lawrence, has
been derived either from oral com-
munication with him or from his
letters to myself, I ought not to be
charged with “hanging on to the
skirts of a popular delusion.” That
those sentiments were what I have
represented them to be, I have nume-
rous proofs in his own handwriting.
A single extract, however, from his
correspondence will suffice for all
purposes. Writing to me from Mount
Ahoo on the I6th of July, 1856, with
reference to the office under the
Home Gcvemtncnt of India w’hich

had recently been conferred on me,
he said : “ The appointment must be
one of the pleasantest, unless, indeed,
you feel as I do, that Government is
going too fast, and that we are losing
our good name among the Native
States. I confess that I do not like
the present system, and that I would
gladly give up salary to change to a
purely civil or military berth. When
1 read the tirades ot the Friend of
India fL half think myself (with many
better men, including Elphinstone,
Mnnro, and Clerk) a fool. The doc-
trine now is that it is wicked not to
knock down and plunder every Native
prince. My views are exactly what
they were when I wrote the articles
for you on the Maliratfcas and on
Oude. My paper on Oude would
serve as a guide to present doings in
all points save the disposal of the
surplus revenue, which assuredly
ought to be spent in Oude, Nor,
indeed, do I think that we should
materially lose, or fail to gain thereby.
Is it nothing that we should make a
garden of the nursery of our Sepoys,
and open out the resources of a pro-
vince bordering for a thousand miles
on our old ones ? But I re-

peat, that my taste for politics is
gone. There ia no confidence left in
the country ; and one does not feel
that the people about Government
House care one straw about one’s
exertions on behalf of the Native
States.” Surely, the trumpet liere
gives no uncertain sound,’*

TOE UTTLE Or/)!^.

455

CHAPTER IIL

LORD CANNING AND THE NATIVE ARMY — THE CALL EOR ** MORE OEPICERS**

— DREAD OE THE BLACK WATER— THE GENERAL SERVICE ENLISTMENT
ACT— ANXIETIES AND ALARMS — LORD CANNING AND THE MISSIONARY
CAUSE— PROSELYTISING OPEICERS — POLITICAL INQUIETUDES— THE PRO-
PHECY OP PIFTY-SEVEN.

The anxieties wHcli Henry Lawrence carried witli The little
Mm to Lucknow Lad then, for some weeks, been dis- j^mary,
quieting tbe mind of the Governor-General. Tbe old
year had died out, apparently leaving to its successor
no greater troubles than those which were iixseparable
from the Persian war ; but before the new year was
many days old, there arose upon the horizon that
little cloud no bigger than a man’s hand, of which
Lord Canning, at the great Farewell Banquet of the
Company, had prophetically spoken. It might be
little; it might be much. It might be blowm away
by a breath of ‘wind ; or it might expand into terrific
dimensions, covering the whole heaven as ■with a pall.
Anyhow, it had an angry threatening aspect; and
the looker-on, being no alarmist, might well ■wish it
away.

Memorable, and, doubtless, well remembered is it Retrospect
that, when Lord Dalhousie bade farewell to the cares

456

OUTBREAK OE THE MUTINY.

1856. of Indian Government, lie placed upon record an
opinion that the condition of the Native soldiery left
nothing to be desired. There was no reason why
Lord Canning, at the outset of his career, should not
take this assertion on trust ; no reason why he should
not hold to it for a while. He went out to India,
prepossessed in favour of “ the faithful Sepoy.” He
had, doubtless, read the noble picture which, nearly
forty years before, his father had drawn of the fidelity
of the Native soldiery of the Company, unshaken by
threats, unallured by temptations.* There were no
flutterings of disquiet apparent on the surface to
raise anxious doubts and misgivings. But he had
not long taken up the reins of Government, when
the subject of the Native Army began to occupy his
thoughts and to afford matter for much grave corre-
spondence. The vast extension of territory which
had made famous the career of Lord Dalhousie had
not been followed by any corresponding extension of
the Agency by which all this new country was to be
administered. As so much more civil duty was to be

* As President of the Board of
Control, George Canning had moved,
in the House of Commons, the vote
of thanks to Lord Hastings’s Army
for its service in the Second Mah-
ratta war, and in the course of his
speech had paid this fine tribute to
the Native Army: "In doing jus-
tice,” he said, “to the bravery of
the Native troops, I must not over-
look another virtue, their fidelity.
Manjf of the Bombay Army had been
recruited in the territories of the
Peisliwah ; their property, their
friends, their relatives, all that was
valuable and dear to them, were still
in that prince’s power. Previously
to the commencement of hostilities,
the Peishwah had spared no pains
to seduce and corrupt these troops ;
he abstained from no threats to force

them from their allegiance, but his
utmost arts were vain. The Native
officers and soldiers came to the
British Commanders with the proofs
of these temptations in their hands,
and renewed the pledges of their
attachment. One man, a non-com-
missioned officer, brought to his cap-
tain the sum of 5000 rupees, which
had been presented to him by the
Peishwah m person, as an earnest of
reward for desertion. The vengeance
denounced by the Peishwah was not
an unmeaning menace; it did, in
many instances, fall heavily on the
relatives of those who resisted his
threats and his entreaties ; but the
effect was rather to exasperate than
to repress their ardour in the service
to which tliey had sworn to ad-
here.”

THE CALL FOR MORE OFFICERS.

457

done, it seemed, in strict logical sequence, that there 1858.
was an increased demand for civil servants, and that
this demand should have been supplied. But govern-
ment by the Civil Service of the Company was
costly; and to have called for increased agency of
this kind would perhaps have supplied LeadenhaU-
street with an argument against the profitableness of
annexation. Moreover, there was much rough work
to be done in our newly-acquired provinces, for
which, on the whole, perhaps, military administrators
were better suited than civilians. So the military
officer, as has before been said, was taken from his
regimental duties to share in the civil administration
of the country. Great had been, for this purpose,
the drain upon the Native regiments, before the
annexation of Oude. That event brought the as-
cendant evil to a climax ; and Lord Canning wrote
home that it had become necessary to add two
officers to each Native Infantry regiment and four
to the Europeans. “A request,” he wrote, in the
early part of April, “ for an addition to the number
of officers in each Infantry regiment — ^European aaid
Native — ^goes home by this mail. Four for each
European and two for each Native regiment are
asked. The application comes singly and in a bald
shape ; because the necessity of an immediate in-
crease is urgent, and because I have had no time to
go into the complicated questions of our military
wants generally.”

There was, indeed, nothing more difficult to under- "More ^^
stand aright than these military questions; difficult
to experienced statesmen : altogether embarrassing
and bewildering to a Governor in his novitiate.

Even tbia matter of “ more officers,” so smooth as it
appeared to be on the surface, when you came to

OUTBEEAE OF THE MDUNT.

458

1856. gauge it, was found to contain a deposit ot doubt
and conflict. It was held by some, who had studied
well aU the deteriorating influences of which so much
has been said in these pages, that the cry for “ more
officers” was one to be responded to with caution ;
that, indeed, the Native Army had already too many
officers; and that now to increase their number
would be to increase one of the evils that had long
been impairing its efficiency. That Lord Canning,
fresh from England, should have taken the more
popular view of this want of officers, was natural;
and, indeed, it may be said that it was a plain com-
mon-sense view, not wanting in a certain kind of
logic. It had becopae a proverb that the English
officer was the Backbone of the Native regiment;
and, assuredly, the administrative demands of our
new provinces bad left these Native regiments, ac-
cording to the recognised reading, sadly enfeebled
and incapacitated. AU that he now sought to do
was to restore them somewhat more nearly to their
normal condition. The remedy seemed to lie on the
surface, and straightway he exerted himself to supply
it. But, the theory of the Backbone accepted, it
was still possible that the vertebral column might be
weakened by having too many joints ; and therefore
it was said by a few thoughtful and experienced men,
emphatically by Sir George Clerk,* that there was
more danger in giving our Native regiments too
many English officers than in giving them too few ;
and for this reason, that being many they formed a
society apart and kept aloof from their men, and
became altogether in their ways of life too European.
Doubts such as these, and from such a quarter,
brought clearly to Lord Canning’s mind the fact that

♦ TliBii Secretaary to tho Board c! Control,

THE MILITARY DEFENCE OF PEGfJ.

459

tte Native Army question was a very difficult one; 1856.
that it was almost impossible, indeed, whilst avoiding
one rock, to escape from steering upon another. But
the call for more officers had been made ; and, per-
haps, with no want of wisdom. For, although there
was profound truth in what was said about the evil
of too much Englishism in the Native Army, the
Regular Regiments of the Company had been formed
upon the European model, and the principle of com-
mand by many officers was a vital part of the system.

The Irregular system might have been better than
the Regular, but a Regular Regiment denuded of its
officers fulfilled the condition of neither. So the
Home Government recognised the want of more of-
ficers, and responded to the appeal.

Another, and still more important question, soon Evils of
came up for solution. The specific evils, which re-
suited from the extension of our dominions, varied in
accordance with the direction in which we had ex-
tended them. The acquisition of new territory on
the south-eastern coast had caused but Rttle political
excitement in India; but the very circumstance to
which we owed our exemption from evils of one
kind was the immediate source of another class of
evils. It has been said that the intervention of the
black waters of the Bay of Bengal cut off the sove-
reigns of Burmah from the brotherhood of the
Princes of the great continent of India, and made it
a matter of small concern whether we gained battles
or lost them in that part of the world.* But that
very black water made it difficult for us to garrison
the country which we had won. The new province uilitaiy fle-
of Pegu had been brought administratively under te“ceo'fPega,
the Supreme Government of India, and in the first

* Ante, pp, 67‘68,

460

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

1856.

Yoluuteer

corps.

1811.

arrangements made for its military defence, the regi-
ments planted there had been drawn from the Bengal
Army. But the great bulk of that Army eschewed
Foreign service.* It was not part of the conditions,
under which they had enlisted, that they should cross
the seas. The Sepoy, on taking service, swore that
he would never forsake or abandon his colours, and.
that he would march whithersoever he was directed,
whether within or beyond the territories of the Com-
pany. Out of the seventy-four regiments composing
the Native Infantry of the Bengal Army, six only
were recruited for general service. When more Na-
tive troops had been required to take part in opera-
tions beyond the seas, it had been customary to call
for volunteers from the limited-service regiments.
There had been often a free response to this invita-
tion, and the volunteer corps had done their duty
well upon Foreign service. In the old times, indeed,
before the new organisation, they had in this respect
shown signal devotion ; they had gone willingly to
remote places beyond the seas and cheerfully endured
all the miseries and privations of long arid boisterous
voyages. In one year, seven thousand Bengal Sepoys
had volunteered for service against the French in the
Mauritius and in Java; and had served for many
years in those islands with unvarying fidelity and
good conduct.! But, even in those days, they had

* “ The natives of India have, tion, than at tlie zeal and attachment
generally speaking, a rooted dislike they have often shown upon such
to the sea; and when we consider tvfmgoccmoT:\s”-- Sir Joh?i Malcolm
the great privations and hardships in the Quarterly Review^ vol. xviii.
to which Hindoos of high caste are p. 399.

subject on a long voyage, during f THiebattalions thus formed were
which some of them, from prejudices the basis of the six general-service
of caste, subsist solely on parched regiments, in the later organisation,
grain, we feel less surprised at the of \rhich mention is made in the
occasional mutinies, which have been text,
caused by orders for their epibarka-

CONDUCT or THE THIRTY-EIGHTH.

461

been at times capricious ; and their caprices, as time 1356.
advanced and their devotion to their officers dimi-
nished, had grown more frequent and more embar-
rassing.* The mutiny and massacre at Barrackpore
had risen out of the demands of the first Burmese
war, and the second war in those transmarine regions
had raised up a new crop of difficulties of the old
type.

A few sentences will tell all that need be told of
this last story : The Native troops employed in the
conquest of Pegu were either Madras troops or the 1852.
general-service regiments of the Bengal Army. But
reinforcements were needed, and so a call was to be
made for volunteers. The Thirty-eighth Native Re- The Thirty-
giment was then at the Presidency. It had served
long and fought gallantly in Afghanistan, and it was
believed that it would follow its officers to any part
of the world. But when the day of trial came, the
result was a bitter disappointment. The Sepoys were
asked whether they would embark for Rangoon to
take part in the war, or for Arracan, there to relieve
a general-service re^ment, which in that case would
be sent on to Burmah. Their reply was, that they
were willing to march anywhere, but that they
would not volunteer to cross the seas. Perfectly
respectful in their language, they were firm in their
refusal. Doubt and suspicion had taken possession
of their minds. How it happened I do not know,
but a belief was afterwards engendered among them,
that the English Government had a foul design to
entrap them, and that if they commenced the march
to the banks of the Irrawaddy, they would at a con-

^ Sir Jolm Malcolm, writing in commanding officers, or from orders
1817-18, says, that all the mutinies given, to go heyond the seas. See
in tlie Bengal Army up to that time article, above quoted, in Quarkrly
had arisen from the blunders of their Review*

462

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINT.

1856.

October 20,
1852.

Reliefs for
Pegu.

venient point be taken to the sea-board and forcibly
compelled to embark. Lord Dalhousie, taking, there-
fore, the prudent rather than the vigorous view of
the situation, and availing himself of the advanced
state of the season as a plea for the adoption of the
feebler of the two courses before him, yielded to
these first symptoms of danger, and decreed that the
Thirty-eighth should be sent neither to Rangoon nor
to Arracan, but to the nearer and more inland
station of Dacca. And so nothing more was heard
for a time of the disaffection of the Bengal Army.

The Court of Directors of the East India Com-
pany, when this business was reported to them, saw
clearly that it had become difficult to carry on the
concerns of their vastly extended empire with one-
half of their Army, and that the more important half,
bound to render them only a restricted obedience;
so they wrote out to the Governor-General that they
hoped soon to be put in possession of the “ senti-
ments of his Government on the expediency of
adopting such a change in the terms of future enlist-
ments as might eventually relieve them from similar
embarrassments.” But no action was taken during
the remaining years of Lord Dalhousie’s administra-
tion, and Lord Canning found, on his accession,
that stiH but a twelfth part of the Bengal Army was
available for service beyond the seas. What then
was to be done, when reliefs were required for Pegu ?
Even if the old professional ardour of the Sepoy had
been restored, the occasion was scarcely one on
which the Government could have called for volun-
teers. The formation of volunteer regiments had
been confined to periods of actual warfare ; and now
that we required them merely to garrison our acqui-
sitions in time of peace, the difficulty that confronted

BELIEFS FOE PEGU.

463

Lord Canning was one not readily to be overcome.
He found at tins time that of the six general-service
regiments three were then in Pegu. They had em-
barked on a specific understanding that they should
not be called upon to serve there for more than three
years, and, in the rainy season of 1856, two of the
three regiments were in their third year of trans-
marine service. In the early part of the following
year, therefore, a relief would be necessary ; but not
one of the other three regiments could be despatched ;
for they had all returned only a year or two before
from service in the same part of the country. It was
clear, therefore, that the Bengal Army could not pro-
vide the means of despatching the required reliefs by
water transport to Pegu.

So a question arose as to whether the relieving
regiments might not, according to their bond, be
marched to the Burmese coast. It was a circuitous
and toilsome journey, but it had been done, under
pressure of like difficulty, thirty years before, and
might yet be done again. But although the improve-
ment of the communications between the Hooghly
and the Irrawaddy was then being urged forward by
the Government, there was still a break on the line
from Chittagong to Akyab, of which our Engineers
could not give a sufficiently encouraging account to
satisfy the Governor-General that the relieving regi-
ments could be sent by land in the ensuing cold
season. “ A part of the road,” said Lord Canning,
“ could not be made passable for wheels by that time
without the addition of eight thousand labourers to
those already employed. If the use of wheeled car-
riages were abandoned, there would still remain en-
camping ground to be cleared on many parts of it ;
.the jungle, which is already choking the tract, to be

1858.

464

OUTBEEAE OF XHE MUTINY.

1856.

Demands on
the Madras
Armj.

removed; preparation to be made for halting the
men on the march ; wells to be dug, or water to be
stored, where none has yet been found ; and stations
and storehouses provided. Simple operations enough
in themselves, but which in this case would have to
be begun and completed, on two hundred miles of
road, between the beginning of December, before
which no work on that coast can be attempted, and
February, when the troops must begin to pass over
the ground, the supply of labour, as well as its
quality, being very little trustworthy.” “ Obstacles
of this kind,” continued the Governor-General, ‘‘ have
been overcome again and again by the Sepoys of
Bengal in their marches, whenever it has been neces-
sary to do so ; but I am of opinion that it will be
better in the present instance to seek some other solu-
tion of the difficulty. And I believe that the one
most available is a recourse to the Madras Army.”

And why not? The Madras, or, as it was once
called, the Coast Army, was enlisted for general
service. Posted in the Southern Peninsula, and to a
great extent along the sea-board, it was as readily
available for service on the other side of the Bay as
the Army in Lower Bengal. If the duty were un-
palatable, it could not, when diffused over fifty
regiments, press very heavily upon any individual
soldier. Besides, service of this kind had some com-
pensations of its own, and was not altogether to be
regarded as a grievance.* So it was thought that the

^ It must uot be supposed, bow- wlieu about to embark at Vizaga-
ever, that the Madras Armjr had patam, and shot all but one or two,
always cheerfully accepted tms ne- who had contrived to escape on
cessity for going upon foreign ser- board the ship which was waiting to
vice. On several occasions they had receive the regiment. In a former
broken into mutiny on the eve of chapter I have given some later in-
embarkation. Once, towards the stances, and others might have been
close of the last century,, they had cited. But there are some noble
risen upon their European officers, examples on record of another kind.

PJIOTEST OF THE MADRAS GOVERNMENT.

465

garrison of Pegu miglit, for a time at least, be drawn 1856 .
from the Madras Army. But ready as the solution
appeared to be, it was found that here also there was
some hard, gritty, insoluble matter at the bottom of
the scheme. The Madras Government, though not
unwilling to send troops to Pegu, as a temporary
arrangement, protested against being called upon to
supply a permanent garrison to that part of our
dominions. Such an arrangement would bring round
to every regiment a tour of service beyond the sea
once in every nine years, instead of once in twelve
years; it would render service in the Madras Army
unpopular ; make recruiting difficult among the
better class of Natives whom it was desired to enlist ;
and, inasmuch as every regiment lost much of its
morale on Foreign service, and took two or three
years to recover what was lost, the efficiency of the
Madras Army would be permanently deteriorated.

So Lord Canning turned his thoughts in another

and one adduced by Sir John Mal-
colm, in the article above quoted,
deserves to be recorded here, if only
as an illustration of the influence for
good of a trusted commanding of-
ficer. Speaking of the services of
the Twenty-second Madras Regi-
ment, he says : Tliis fine corps was
commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel
James Oram, an. officer not more
distinguished for his personal zeal
and gallantry than for a thorough
knowdedgo of the men under his
command, whose temper he had
completely preserved, at the same
time that lie had imparted to them
the highest perfection in their dress
and discipline. When he proposed
to his corps on parade to volunteer
for Manilla, they only requested to
know whether Colonel Oram would
go with them? The answer was,
‘ Re would.’ ‘ Will he stay with
us P’ was the second question. The

reply was in the affirmative; the
whole corps exclaimed, ‘ To Europe I
— ^to Europe And the alacrity and
spirit with which they subsequently
embarked, showed that they would
as readily have gone to the shores of
the Atlantic as to an island of the
Eastern Ocean. Not a man of the
corps deserted, from the period they
volunteered for service until they
embarked; and such was the con-
tagion of their enthusiasm, that
several Sepoys who were missing
from one of the battalions in garri-
son at Madras, were found, when
the expedition returned, to have de-
serted to join the Twenty-second
under Colonel Oram. tVe state
this anecdote,” adds Sir Jolin Mal-
colm, " with a full impression of the
importance of the lesson it conveys.
It is through their affections alone
tliat such a class of men can well be
commanded.”

466

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINT.

185 C. direction. Madras troops might be sent for the
Tiie General nonce to Pegu, blit the permanent defence of that
Eni^istment outlying province across the Bay must, it appeared
to him, be provided for by drawing, in some way,
upon the Bengal Army. There was then lying, un^
responded to, among the Records of the Military
Department, that despatch of the Court of Directors
in which the Government of India had been urged
to devise the means of relieving themselves from all
such emi'arrassments by a change in the terms of
future enlistments. After much inward thought and
much consultation with others, he determined, there-
fore, to institute such a radical change in the con-
stitution of the Bengal Army as four years before
had been indicated by the Home Government. The
reform which he contemplated was to have only a
prospective eflFect. It was to touch no existing in-
terests; but to be applied prospectively to all who
might enlist into the military service of the State.
Thenceforth every recruit was to engage himself for
general service. There might be an alteration in
the form of the oath, or it might simply be left to the
European officer to explain to every recruit that he
had been enlisted for general service. Such had
been the custom with respect to the six general-
service regiments of the Bengal Army, and it had
been found to answer every requirement. An ex-
planatory order might be issued by the Governor-
General in Council, and then the military autho-
rities might follow up, in their own way, the blow
struck at the niceties of the old system. The Go-
vernor-General argued, with irresistible force, that
every Government should be master of its own
Army. He was, however, at that time, fresh from
England ; and he might be forgiven for not knowing

THE GENEEA.L-SEETICE ENUSTMENT ACT.

467

how tlie Government could best make itself the isse.
master of such an Army as that with which he was
then dealing. But he would have had no legitimate
claim to forgiveness if he had failed to take counsel
with those among his constitutional advisers who
had spent aU their adult lives in India, and who
were presumedly familiar with the feelings and opi-
nions of the people. He did take coimsel with them ;
and they urged him to pursue this course. He who,
of aU the Councillors, best knew the Native character, General Low.
was then in England ; but the ablest man amongst
them argued that there was no place like Calcutta Mr. J.P.
for shipping off a large military force, and that the
Bay of Bengal had become an Indian Lake. It does
not seem that there was any one at Lord Canning’s
elbow to tell him that, whatsoever might be the fa-
cilities of transport, the Bay of Bengal would still
be the black water, the salt water, in the thoughts
of the people from whom our recruits were to be
drawn ; still regarded with mysterious awe, and re-
coiled from with unconquerable aversion.

So, on the 25th of July, 1856, a general order
was issued by the Government of India, declaring
that, thenceforth, they would not accept the service
of any Native recruit who would not, “ at the time
of his enlistment, distinctly undertake to serve be-
yond the sea, whether within the territories of the
Company or beyond them.” In what light Lord
Canning regarded this important change, with what
arguments he supported the measures, may be ga-
thered from his correspondence. “ You will see,”

he Avrote to the President of the India Board, “ that August 9,

• • ^ 1856

a General Order has been published putting an end

to the long-established, but most impolitic, embar-
rassing, and senseless practice of enlisting the Native

2 H 2

468

OUTBEEAK OF THE MUTEST.

1856 .

NoTomber

1856,

Army of Bengal for limited service only; the sole
exceptions being six regiments of Native Infantry,
which are recruited on the condition of serving any-
where, and the Artillery. It is marvellous that this
should have continued so long, and that the Govern-
ment of India should have tolerated, again and again,
having to beg for volunteers, when other Govern-
ments, including those of Madras and Bombay, would
have ordered their soldiers on their duty. It is the
more surprising, because no one can allege any rea-
son for conceding this unreasonable immunity to the
Bengal Sepoy. The difficulties of Caste furnish none
whatever, for the Bombay Army is recruited in great
part from the same classes and districts as that of
Bengal ; and even in the latter the best Brahmin in
the ranks does not scruple to set aside his prejudices,
whenever it suits .him to do so. There seems to
have been a dim apprehension that there might be
risk in meddling with the fundamental conditions
upon which the bargain between the Army and the
Government has hitherto rested, and there are some
few alarmists on the present occasion, but I have seen
no reason to fear that the order will cause any bad
feeling in the Bengal Army. As it touches no exist-
ing rights, it could only do so by exciting apprehen-
sions that something more remains behind ; and, pro-
bably, this may prove to be the case, for whenever I
can propose a reduction in the numbers of the Bengal
Regiments, I shall endeavour to do so upon terms
that will give a preference of remaining in the ranks
to such men as may be willing to accept general
service. But this is no part of, and is not necessarily
connected with the present change ; moreover, as yet
I, it is only in my own breast.” And again, a few
months later, he wrote, with still greater confidence :

THE GENERAL-SEEVICE ENUSTMENT ACT. 469

‘‘ There is no fear of feelings of Caste being excited 1S56.
by the new enlistment regulations in the Bengal
Army. No one will come under it otherwise than
voluntarily ; and the fact that a vast number of the
recruits who join the Bombay regiments come from
the same country, and are of the same caste, and
in every respect of the same condition with the bulk
of the Army in Bengal, proves that they do not, on
first entering the service, hold very closely to Caste
privileges. You are aware that the Bombay Army
is enlisted for general service without exception. The
only apprehension 1 have ever had (and that has
vanished) is, that the Sepoys already enlisted on the
old terms might suspect that it was a first step to-
wards breaking faith with them, and that on the first
necessity they might be compelled to cross the sea.

But there has been no sign of any such false alarm
on their part.”

No signs truly apparent at Government House;
but many and great in the Native villages, and much
talk in the Lines and Bazaars. It was hardly right
even to say that there was no interference with exist-
ing interests. For the interest of the Sepoy in the
Bengal Army was an hereditary interest. If the Bri-
tish Government did not at once assume the right
to send him across the sea, it seemed certain that his
sons would be sent. There was an end, indeed, of
the exclusive privileges which the Bengal Sepoy had
so long enjoyed ; the service never could be hereafter
Avhat it had been of old ; and aU the old pride, there-
fore, with which the veteran had thought of his boys
succeeding him was now suddenly extinguished. Be-
sides, the effect, he said, would be, that high-caste
men would shrink from entering the service, and
that, therefore, the vacant places of his brethren

470

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

1856, would be filled by men with whom he could have no
feeling of comradeship. And this was no imaginary
fear. No sooner had the order made its way through
the Provinces, than it became patent to all engaged
in the work of enlistment that the same high-caste
men as had before been readily recruited were no
longer pressing forward to enter the British service.*
As it was believed that we had too many Brahmins
and Rajpoots in the Bengal Army, this in itself
might have been no great evil. But it was of all
things the least likely that such an order should pass
into general circulation without being ignorantly
misunderstood by some, and designedly misinter-
preted by others.

Enlistment of So it was soon said that the English gentlemen
Yfere trying to rid themselves of their old high-caste
Sepoys, and that soon the profession which had been
followed, with honourable pride, by generation after
generation of old soldier-families would not be open
to them. And this belief was greatly strengthened
by a rumour which went forth about the same time,
to the effect that Government had determined on
enlisting thirty thousand more Sikhs. The conquest
of the Punjab had placed at our disposal the services
of a warlike race, always eager to wear the uniform
of a successful ruler, for in their eyes success was
plunder. Less dainty in the choice of their battle-

* Take, in proof of tins, tlie^ fol- Infantry, in tliis place, said to me
lowing extract from a letter written last week that he had clearly ascer-
by Sir Henry Lawrence to Lord tained this fact: Mr. E. A."Eeade,
Canning, on the 1st of May, 1857 : of the Sudder Board, who was for
" The General Service Enlistment years collector of Gonxckpore, had
Oath is , most distasteful, keeps many the General Service Order given to
out of the service, and frightens the him as a reason last year, when on
old Sepoys, who imagine that the his tour, by llajpoots, for not enter-
oatbs of the young recruits affect ing the service. The salt water, he
the whole ^ re^ment. One of the told me, was the universal answer,’*
best captains of the 13th Native — MS. Correspondence*

ENLISTMENT OF SIKHS*

471

fields, and not less brave or robust in battle, they 18 £ 6 .
were tbe very kind of mercenaries that we wanted to
give new bone and sinew to the body of our Native
Army. Whether there were or were not, at this
time, a tendency to over- work this new and promising
recruiting-ground, it is certain that the old race of
Sepoys believed that we were designedly working it
to their injury and their overthrow. They gave
ready credence, therefore, to exaggerated reports of
Sikh enlistments, and, coupling them with the New
General Service Order, leapt to the conclusion that
the English had done with the old Bengal Army,
and were about to substitute for it another that
would go anywhere and do anything, like coolies
and pariahs.

Moreover, there were not wanting those who were Effects of tin
eager to persuade the Sepoys of the Bengal Army that
this new Act was another insidious attempt to de- Order,
stroy the Caste of the people, and to make men of all
creeds do the bidding of the English, by merging all
into the one faith of the Feringhee. It was another
link in the great chain of evidence which had been
artfully employed to convict the British Government
of the charge of aiming at the compulsory conversion
of the people. The season was most propitious. The
coming of Lord Canning had, by some strange pro-
cess of association which I find it impossible to trace,
been identified with certain alleged instructions fi*om
England, emanating from the Queen herself in Coun-
cil, for the Christianisation, by fair means or by foul,
of the great mass of the people ; and now one of the
first acts of his Government was to issue an order
making it compulsory on the Sepoy to take to the
transport vessel, to cross the black water, and to
serve in strange parts of the world, far away, per*

472

OUTBREAK. OE THE MUTINY.

1856 .

Apprehen-
sions and
alarms.

haps, from all the emblems and observances of his
religion, among a people sacrilegious and unclean.

The native mind was, at this time, in a most sen-
sitive state, and easily wrought upon by suspicious
appearances. What these appearances were, has, in
some measure, been shown in former chapters of this
narrative. Even the Railway and the Electric Tele-
graph had been accounted as blows struck at the
religions of the country. Nor was this purely a
creation of the Native mind, an unaided conception
of the Priests or the People; for the missionaries
themselves had pleaded the recent material progress
of the English as an argument in favour of the adop-
tion by the inhabitants of India of one universal
religion. “The time appears to have come,” they
said in an Address which was extensively circulated in
Bengal during the closing years of Lord Dalhousie’s
administration, “when earnest consideration should
be given to the question, whether or not all men
should embrace the same system of religion. Rail-
ways, Steam-vessels, and the Electric Telegraph are
rapidly uniting all the nations of the earth. The
more they are brought together, the more certain
does the conclusion become that all have the same
wants, the same anxieties, and the same sorrows;’’
md so on, with manifest endeavour to prove that
European civilisation was the forerunner of an in-
e^dtable absorption of aU other faiths into the one
faith of the White Ruler. This had gone forth, an
egregious Christian manifesto, not wanting in funda-
mental truth, or in certain abstract proprieties of
argument and diction, to “ Educated Natives,” es-
pecially to respectable Mahomedans in Government
employment, some of the leading Native functionaries
of Bengal. What might truly be the purport of it,

MISSIONAEY MANIFESTOES.

473

and whence it came, was not very clear at first ; but 1S56.
ere long it came to be accepted as a direct emanation
from Government, intended to invite the people to
apostatise from the religions of their fathers. And
such Avas the excitement that Commissioner Tayler, of
the great Patna division, wherein some disquietudes
had before arisen, mainly of the Mahomedan type,
repoi’ted to Lieutenant-Governor Halliday that in-
telligent natives, especially the better class of Moslems,
were “ impressed Avith a full belief that Government
Avere immediately about to attempt the forcible con-
version of its subjects,” It Avas added, that “a corre-
spondence on this head had for some time been
going on between native gentlemen in various parts
of the Lower Provinces and Lieutenant-Governor
Halliday saw so clearly that this Avas no impalpable
mare’s-nest, no idle scum of an alarmist brain, that
he forthwith issued a sedative Proclamation ; which
sedative proclamation was speedily answered anony-
mously, but beyond doubt by an “ intelligent native,”
or conclave of “intelligent natives,” clearly shoAving
by the inevitable logic of facts that if this notion of
a Avar against the religions of India had laid hold of
the national mind, the Government had by their own
measures given encouragement to the dangerous be-
lief.

Very obstinate, indeed, and hard to be removed, was
this belief; so hard, that the very efforts made to
efface it might only fix more ineffaceably the
damaging impression on the native mind. For if the
Avondering multitude did not think, there Avere a
crafty feAv ready to teach them, that if Government
designed, by foul means, to destroy the caste of the
people and the religions of the country, they would
not hesitate to make the issuing of a lying proclama-

471

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTKir.

1856.

Lord Caiminfl
and the Reli-
ft lous Socie-

tion a part of tlie process. The conviction that it was
the dehberate design of the British Government, by
force or fraud, to attain this great object, was growing
stronger and stronger every month, when Lord Can-
ning arrived in India, and at once became, all unwit-
tingly, a special object of suspicion and alarm. The
lies which attended, perhaps preceded, his advent,
caused all his movements to be narrowly watched ;
and it began soon to be bruited abroad that he had
subscribed largely to missionary societies, and that
Lady Canning, who was known to be in the especial
confidence of the Queen, was intent on making great
personal exertions for the conversion of the women
of the country.

But there was no truth in all this. The Governor-
General had done no more than other Governors-
General had done before him. He had sent a dona-
tion to the Bible Society, a society for the translation
of the Scriptures into the Oriental languages, and the
circulation of these new versions among the people.
But the translation of the Scriptures had been carried
on more than half a century before, in the College of
Fort William, under the especial patronage of Lord
Wellesley; and Lord Wellesley’s successor, during
whose reign the Calcutta Bible Society was esta-
blished, headed the list with a large subscription.
Lord Hastings, Lord William Bentinck, and Sir
Charles Metcalfe, had all contributed to the funds of
the society. But Lord Canning had also given a dona-
tion to the Baptist College at Serampore. What then ?
It had been established in 1818 , under the auspices of
Lord Hastings, whose name had been published as
the “First Patron” of the Institution, and it had
received the support of subsequent Governors-Ge-
ueral without question or comment. Besides these

LORD CANinNG AKD THE MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 47 5

donations, he had made a contribution to the support 1853 .
of the excellent school of the Free Church Mission,
under the management of Dr. Duff, as Lord Dal-
housie had done before him. “I admit,” he said,

“ that the Head of the Government in India ought to
abstain from acts which may have the appearance of
an exercise of power, authority, solicitation, or per-
suasion towards inducing natives to change their
religion. But if it is contended that a school like
this, thoroughly catholic and liberal, open, to students
of every creed, doing violence to none, and so con-
ducted as to disarm hostility and jealousy (the num-
ber of the Hindoo and Mussulman scholars shows
this), is not to have countenance and support from
the Governor-General because it is managed by mis-
sionaries, I join issue on that point. I am not pre-
pared to act upon that doctrine.”

And what had Lady Canning done? She had
taken a true womanly interest in the education of
native female children. She had visited the female
schools of Calcutta in a quiet, unobtrusive way ; but
once only in each case, save with a notable exception
in favour of the Bethune Institution, which had been
taken by Lord Dalhousie under the special care of the
Government.* In this Lady Canning had taken some
observable interest. But as the Managing Committee
of the school was composed of high-caste Hindoo gen-
tlemen, there was assuredly no apparent necessity for
restraining her womanly instincts and shrinking into
apathy and indolence, as one regardless of the hap-
piness and the dignity of her sex. Whatsoever may
have been the zeal for the conversion of the Heathen
that pervaded Government House, there were no in-
discreet manifestations of it. There are times, how-
* A'^U, page 187.

476

OUTBKEAK OF THE MUTINY.

ever, ■when no discretion can -wholly arrest the growth
of dangerous lies. A very little thing, in a season of
excitement, will invest a colourable falsehood with the
brightest hues of truth, and carry conviction to the
dazzled understanding of an ignorant people. The
sight of Lady Canning’s carriage at the gates of the
Bethune school may have added, therefore. Heaven
only knows, some fresh tints to the picture of a caste-
destroying Government, which active-minded emis-
saries of e-vil were so eager to hang up in the public
places of the land.

It was not much ; perhaps, indeed, it was simply
■ nothing. But just at that time there was a movement,
urged on by John Grant and Barnes Peacock, in the
purest spirit of benevolence, for the rescue of the
women of India from the degradation in which they
were sunk. It happened — ^truly, it happened, for it
was wholly an accident — that one of the first mea-
sures, outwardly, of Lord Canning’s Government was
the formal passing of the bill “ to remove all legal
obstacles to the marriage of Hindoo widows,” which
had been introduced, discussed, and virtually carried,
during the administration of his predecessor.* And
this done, there was much said and written about the
restraints that were to be imposed on Hindoo poly-
gamy ; and every day the appearance of a Draft Act,
formidable in the extreme to Brahminism, was looked
for, with doubt and aversion, by the old orthodox
Hindoos. For they saw that in this, as in the matter
of Re-Marriage, some of their more free-thinking
countrymen, mostly of the younger generation,
moved by the teachings of the English, or by some
hope of gain, were beseeching Government to relieve
the nation from what they called the reproach of Ku-

KESTEICTIONS ON POLYGAMY, 477

linisin. And, at such a time, Orthodoxy, staggering 1856 .
under blows given, and shrinking from blows to come,
looked aghast even at such small manifestations as
the visits of the wife of the Governor-General to the
Bethuno female school. It was clear that the English,
with their overpowering love of rule, were about now
to regulate in India, after their own fashion, the
relations of the two sexes to each other.*

Lord Canning found this movement afoot ; he in
no wise instituted it. He found that Lord Dalhousie,
after an experience of many years, believed these
social reforms to be practicable and safe ; he found
that the ablest member of his Council, who had spent
all his adult life in India, was with aU his heart and
soul eager for their promotion, and with all the
activity of his intellect promoting them. As to this
movement against Hindoo polygamy, which was in-
tended to prune down the evil, not wholly to eradi-
cate it, there was something, to his European under-
standing, grotesque in the notion of a Christian Legis-
lature recognising certain forms of polygamy, and
addressing itself only to the abuses of the system, as
though to Christian eyes it were not altogether an
abuse. But he could see plainly enough that only by
admitting such a compromise could the good thing be
done at all ; and seeing also the necessity of proceed-
ing warily with such a delicate operation, he was not
disposed, in the first instance, to do more than to feel
the pulse of the people. It would be wise to delay

* Sir Henry Lawrence clearly
dibcerued the danger of this, and in
an article in the Calcutta Review,
written in 1856, pointed it out : “ Of
late years,” he wrote, “the wheels
of Government have been moving
very fast. Many native prejudices
have been, shocked. Natives are

now threatened with the abolition of
polygamy. It would not be difficult
to twist this into an attack on Hin-
dooisrn. At any rate, the faster the
vessel glides, the more need of cau-
tion, of watching the weather, the
rocks, and the shoals.”

478

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

iS56. actual legislatiou until public opinion should have
been more unmistakably evoked.*

In the personal action of Lord Canning during
this year of his novitiate, in the promotion either of
the religious conversion or the social reformation of
the people, I can see no traces of intemperate zeal.
But it is not to be questioned that just at this time
there ivas a combination of many untoward circum-
stances to strengthen the belief, which had been
growing for some years, that the English Government
were bent upon bringing, by fair means or by foul,
all the nations of India under the single yoke of the
White Man’s faith. Nor is it less certain that at such
a time the order for the enlistment of Native troops
for general service appeared to their unaided compre-
hensions, and was designedly declared by others, to be
a part of the scheme. There were those, indeed, who

* Lord Canning’s opinions are so
clearly expressed" in tlie following
passage, that it is right tliat his
words should be given : “ It will, no
doubt, be a little staggering to find
ourselves drawing up a law by which,
although a horrible abuse of poly-
gamy will be cliecked, a very liberal
amount of it will be sanctioned, and
which must recognise as justifying it
reasons which we believe to be no
justification whatever. It may be
said that we shall only be enforcing
Hindoo law, and that we are con-
stantly doing this in many ways
which abstractedly we should not
approve. But 1 do not know that
we have any examples of laws of our
own making and wording, by which
anything so contrary to our convic-
tions of right and wrong as the
taking of a second wife, for the rea-
sons allowed by Menu (or at least
for eight of them out of ten), is de-
clared lawful. This, however, is a
matter of appearance and feeling
rather than of substance. Practically,

a monstrous horror would be put an
end to, and we might keep ourselves
straight even in appearance by mak-
ing it very clear in the preamble that
the act is passed at the desire of the
Hindoos to rescue tlieir owu law and
custom from a great abuse, and that
in no respect is it proposed to sub-
stitute English law for the laws of

that people TJponthe wliole,

I come, without hesitation, to the
conclusion that the movement ouglit
to be encouraged to our utmost, and
that the existence and strength of it
ought to be made generally known.
The presentation of the petitions to
the Legislative Council, and tlieir
publication, will effect this. How
soon the introduclionof a bill should
follow, or how much time should be
given to seeing whether serious op-
position is evoked, I should like to
talk over with you some day, as also
the scope of the" bill .”— Canning
to Mr. J. F. Grants June 20, 1856,
MS. Correspondence.

MISSIONARY COLONELS.

479

saw, or professed to see, in ttis matter, the very root 18£6.
of our cherished desire for the conversion of the
people It was said that we wished to bring them all
to our own faith in order that we might find them
willing to do our bidding in all parts of the world,
that they might shrink from no kind of work by sea
or by land, and even fight our battles in Europe ; for
it was plain that England had sad lack of fighting
men, or she would not have drawn upon India for
them during the Crimean war. In the art of what is
called “putting two and two together,” there were
many intelligent natives by no means deficient, and
deeper and deeper the great suspicion struck root in
the popular mind.

There was another ugly symptom, too, at this
time, which greatly, in some particular quarters,
strengthened this impression of coming danger
among the Sepoys of the Bengal Army. There were
among the European ofl5.cer3 of that army many
earnest-minded, zealous Christians ; men whose hearts
were wrung by the sight of the vast mass of heathen-
dom around them, and who especially deplored the
darkness which brooded over their companions in
arms, their children in the service of the State, the
Sepoys who looked up to and obeyed them. Some,
in their conscientious prudence, grieved in silence,
and rendered unto Csesar the homage of a wise for-
bearance. Others, conscientiously imprudent, be-
lieved that it was their duty to render unto God the
just tribute of an apostolic activity. It was the creed
of these last that all men were alike to them, as having
souls to be saved, and that no external circumstances
affected their own inalienable right to do their great
Master’s work. If under the pressure of these con-
victions they had changed the red coat for the black.

480

OUTBREAK OF THE MOTIXT.

H56. and the sword for the shepherd’s crook, they Avould
have fairly earned the admiration of all good men.
But holding fast to the wages of the State, they went
about with the order-book in one hand and the Biblf
in the other ; and thus they did a great and grievoui
wrong to the Government they professed to serve. To
what extent this missionary zeal pervaded our English
officers, it is not easy, with much precision, to declare.
But there Avere some of whose missionary zeal there
is now no remnant of a doubt — some who confessed,
nay, openly gloried in their proselytising endeavours.
One officer, Avho in 1857 was commandant of a regi-
ment of Infantry, said vauntingly in that year : “I
beg to state that during the last tAventy years and
upwards, I have been in the habit of speaking to
natives of all classes. Sepoys and others, making no
distinction, since there is no respect of persons Avith
God, on the subject of our religion, in the highways,'
cities, bazaars, and villages — ^not in the Lines and
regimental Bazaars. I have done this from a convic-
tion that every converted Christian is expected, or
rather commanded, by the Scriptures to make knoAvn
the glad tidings of salvation to his lost fellow-crea-
tures, Our Saviour having offered himself up as a
sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, by which
alone salvation can be secured. He has directed that
this salvation should be freely offered to all Avithout
exception.” Again, in another letter, he Avrote: “As
to the question whether I have endeavoured to con-
vert Sepoys and others to Christianity, I would
humbly reply that this has been my object, and I con-
ceive is the aim and end of every Christian Avho
speaks the word of God to another — merely that the
Lord would make him the happy instrument of con-
verting his neighbour to God, or, in other AV'ords, of

COLONEL WEELEE'S M.VNIEESTO. 481

rescuing him from eternal destruction.” “On mat- isss.
ters connected with religion,” he added, “ I feel myself
called upon to act in two capacities — ‘ to render unto
Ccesar (or the Government) the things that are
Caasar’s, and to render unto God the things that are
God’s.’ Temporal matters and spiritual matters are
thus kept clearly under their respective heads. When
speaking, therefore, to a native on the subject of
religion, I am then acting in the capacity of a
Christian soldier under the authority of my heavenly
superior; whereas in temporal matters I act as a
general officer, under the authority and order of my
earthly superior.”* Reading this, one does not know
whether more to admire the Christian courage of the
writer or to marvel at the strange moral blindness
which would not suffer him to see that he could not
serve both God and Mammon; that ignoring the
known wishes and instructions of his temporal
master, he could not do his duty to his spiritual
Lord ; and that if in such a case the two services
were antagonistic to each other, it was his part, as a
Christian, to divest himself of his purchased alle-
giance to the less worthy Government, and to serve
the Other and the Higher without hindrance and
without reproach. He was not bound to continue to
follow such a calling, but whUst following it he was
bound to do his duty in that state of life to which
it had pleased God to call him.

Whilst all these disturbing influences were at
work, and on many accounts most actively in the
neighbourhood of Calcutta, there came from afar,
across the North-Western frontier, a current of poli-
tical agitation, which was met by other streams of

^ Lieutenant-Colonel Wheler to Government, April 15, 1857 * — Printed
Pa^ere^

2 I

482

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

1856. native origin, turgid also "witli troublous rumours.
The Persian Government, in best of times given to
treachery and trickery, even under the fairest outside
show of friendship, were not likely in such a con-
juncture as had arisen at the end of 1856, to let slip
any available means of damaging an enemy. Holding
fast to the maxim that “ AH is fair in war,” they en-
deavoured, not unwisely after their kind, to raise
manifold excitements on our Northern frontier, and
somehow to “create a diversion.” There might be
some inflammable materials strewn about, to which a
firebrand skilfully applied, or even a spark dropped
seemingly haphazard, might produce the desired
result of combustion. Truly it was worth a trial. In
spite of Sectarian differences something perhaps might
be done by an appeal to the common faith of the fol-
lowers of the Prophet. The King of Delhi, though
not much as a substantial fact, was a great and
potential name ; there was some vitality in the tradi-
tions which were attached to it and the associations
by which it was surrounded. The Mogul himself was
a Soonee, and the people of Delhi and its surround-
ings were mostly Soonees, and there was doubtless a
difficulty in this, but not one that might not be sur-
mounted So Persia sent forth her emissaries noise-
lessly to the gates of the Imperial City, perhaps with
no very clear conception of what was to be done, but
with a general commission to do mischief to the
English. Mahomedans of all sects might be invited
to lay aside their doctiinal differences for a while and
to unite against a common enemy. There might be
great promises of the restoration of a magnificent
Mahomedan Empire ; and, as the least result of the
scattering of such seed, the minds of the people might
be unsettled, and something might come of it in good

POLITICAL INQUIETUDES.

483

time. A Proclamation was therefore prepared, and in 1S56,
due course it found its way to the walls of Delhi, and
even displayed itself on the Jumma Musjid, or Great
Mosque. There were stories, too, in circulation to
the effect that the war on the shores of the Persian
Gulf was going cruelly against us. It was bruited
abroad, also, that though the English thought that'
they had secured the friendship of Dost Mahomed,
the Ameer was really the friend and vassal of Persia,
and that the amity he had outwardly evinced towards
them was only a pretext for beguiling them to sur-
render Peshawur to the Afghans.

It was believed in Upper India that this was to
be done ; and it was reported also about the same
time that the English intended to compensate
themselves for this concession by annexing the
whole of Rajpootana. This last story was not one
of merely native acceptance. It had been set forth
prominently in some of the Anglo-Indian newspapers,
and unhappily there had been nothing in our past
treatment of the Native States of India to cause it
to be disbelieved. In the North-Western regions of
India disturbing rumours commonly assume a poli-
tical colour, whilst lower down in Bengal and Behar,
their complexion is more frequently of a religious
cast. The rumour of the coming absorption of these
ancient Hindoo principalities into the great new
Empire of the British was well contrived, not only
to excite the anxieties and resentments of the Raj-
poot races, but to generate further political mistrust
throughout all the remaining states of the country.

It was so mischievous a report that, when it reached
England and obtained further currency in our jour-
nals, even the Court of Directors of the East India

2 I 2

484

OUTBEEAK OF THE MUTEST.

1856 Company, the most reticent of all political bodies,
broke, as I have before said, through their habitual
reserve, and authoritatively contradicted it.

Seldom is it that the English themselves discern
the effects of these disquieting rumours upon the
minds of the people. In ordinary official language,
at this time, all was quiet in Upper India. But ever
and anon some friendly Mahomedan or Hindoo spoke
of certain significant symptoms of the unrest which
was not visible to the English eye ;* and vague re-
ports of some coming danger which no one could
define, reached our functionaries in the North-
West; and some at last began to awaken slowly to
the conviction that there were evil influences at
work to \msettle the national mind. The new year
dawned, and there was something suggestive in the
number of the year. In 1757 the English had esta-
blished their dominion in India by the conquest of

* The old Afghan chief, Jan should be, ‘Prevention better than
Pishan Khaii, who had followed one cure,’ and that, with enemies at the
fortunes and received a pension from gate, we should take care to keep
tlie British Government, told Mr. tlie inmates of the house our friends.
Greathed, Commissioner at Cawn- He appeared quite relieved to re-
pore, in Eebruary, 1857, that these ceive my assurance that there was
rumours had produced a very bad no probability of either of the appre-
efifect. A private note from that bended events coming to pass. It
officer to Mr. Colvin, the Liente- would hardly have been worth while
nant-Governor, is worthy of citation to mention this incident, but that
in this place: “Jan Pishan Khan we so rarely receive any indication
paid me a visit a few days ago with of the political gossip of the day
the special object of communicating among the native community; and
his apprehensions on the present we may feel quite sure that Jan
state of political affairs in India. P’ishaii was actuated by fears for our
He brought several members of his welfare, and not by *^liopes of our
family, evidently to be witnesses of overthrow, when he gave credence
the interview, and prefaced his ad- to the reports. I am afraid the fre-
dress with a recitation of the fruit- quent reports of annexation in Baj-
less warnings he had given Sir Wm. pootana have agitated the public
MacNaghten of the course affairs mind and bred distrust among the
were taking in Cabul. His fears Bajpoots. It is a pity so many
for our safety rested on his belief ; 7 ears have elapsed since a Governor-
that we intended to give up Pesha- General had an opportunity of per-
wnrto Dost Mahomed, and to annex sonally assuring them of their poli-
Bajpootana. He said our maxim tical safety.”

THE CENTENARY PROPHECY.

485

Bengal. For a hundred years they had now, by the 1838 .
progressive action of continued encroachments, been
spreading their paramount rule over the whole
country ; and there were prophecies, said to be of
ancient date, w'hich foretold the downfal of the Eng-
lish power at the end of this century of supremacy.

Ever in times of popular excitement are strange pro-
phecies afloat in the social atmosphere. Whether
they are revivals of old predictions, or new inven-
tions designed to meet the requirements of the mo-
ment, it is often difficult even to conjecture.* But
whether old or new, whether uttered in good faith or
fraudulently manufactured, they seldom failed to
make an impression on the credulous minds of the
people. Coming upon them not as the growth of
human intelligence, but as the mysterious revelations
of an unseen power, they excited hopes and aspira-
tions, perhaps more vital and cogent from their very
vagueness. The religious element mingled largely
with the political, and the aliment which nourished
the fanaticism of believers fed also their ambition
and their cupidity. In the particular prophecy of
which men at this time were talking there was at
least something tangible, for it was a fact that the
first century of British rule was fast coming to an
end. This in itself was sufficient to administer
largely to the superstition and credulity of the people,
and it was certain, too, that the prediction based
upon it was not now heard for the first time. Lightly
heeded, when long years were to intervene before its

* It is certain, however, that the pointing to the downfal of the Eng*
most preposterous claims to anti- lish at this time; in other words,
quity are sometimes advanced on that our destruction had beenpre-
their behalf. Eor example, it was dieted many hundred years before
gravely stated in a leading Calcutta we had ever been seen in the
journal, that a prophecy had been country, or ever heard of by the
discovered, a thousand years old, people.

UiJXBJliAK. OK 'IMB M’Jim

1866 . possible realisatioB, now tliat tlae date of the pre-
diction bad arrived, it took solemn and significant
shape in the memories of men, and the very excite-
ment that it engendered helped in time to bring
about its fulfilment.*

* Whether the prophecy^ was of
Hindoo or Maliomedau origin is still
a moot question. The following,
from a memorandunj furnished to me
by Mr. E. A. Heade, thro\)is some
li"ht on the subject and will be read
with no little interest : — “ I do not
think I ever met one man in a hun-
dred that did not give the Mahome-
dans credit for this prediction. 1
fully believe that Ihe notion of
change after a century of tenure was
general, and I can testify with others
to have heard of the prediction at
least a quarter of a century pre-
viously. But call it a prediction or
supersitition, the credit of it must,
I think, be given to the Hindoos.
Tf we take the Hejra calendar, 1767
A.D. corresponds with 1171 Hejra;
1867 A.D. with 1374 Hejra. Whereas
by the luni-solar year of the Sunibut,
1767 A.D. is 1814 Surnbut, and 1857
A.1). 1914 Sumbut. I remember an

my remarking to a chowvey Brah-
min, whose loyalty was conspicuous
throughout the period (he was after-
terwards killed in action with tiie
rebels), soon after the battle of Oct.
11, 1857, that the Surnbut 1915 was
passing an ay without the fulfilment
of tlie centenary prophecy, that he
replied with some anxiety, there was
yet a remainder of the year, i.e» till
March 20, 1858 ; and before that
time, in 1833, the Subadar, a Te-
waree, of a cavalry regiment, in his
farew^eli to a brother of mine leaving
the sei vice in that year, coolly tell-
ing him that in another twenty-five
years the Company’s Raj would be
at an end, and the Hindoo llaj re-
stored. It certainly does not much
matter, but I think it is the safe
view to accept the tradition as of
Hindoo rather than Maliomedau
origin.”

THE RISING GF THE STORM.

4ft7

CHAPTER IV.

THE NEW EIFLED MUSKET — THE STORY OF THE GREASED CARTRIDGES —

DUM-DUM AND BARRACKPORE—EXCITEMENT IN THE NATIVE REGIMENTS
— ^EVENTS AT BERHAMPORE— MUTINY OP THE NINETEENTH REGIMENT
—CONDUCT OP COLONEL MITCHELL.

The new year dawned upon India with, a fair 1857.
promise of continued tranquillity. But it was only a
few weeks old when the storm began to arise. It is The storm
in the cold weather that the British officer sees most °*
of the Sepoy, and best understands his temper. Com-
pany drills, and regimental parades, and brigade
exercises, are continually bringing him face to face
with his men, and he roams about Cantonments as he
cannot roam in the midst of the summer heats and
autumnal deluges. But this winter of 1856-57 had
nearly passed away, and he had seen no indications
of anything to disturb his settled faith in the fidelity
of the native soldier. There was outward serenity
everywhere, and apparent cheerfulness and content,
when suddenly a cloud arose in an unexpected quar-
ter; and a tremendous danger, dimly seen at first,
began to expand into gigantic proportions.

For years the enemies of the English, aU who had
been alarmed by our encroachments, all who had
suffered by our usurpations, all who had been shorn

4'88

THE'OOTBKEAK OF THE MDHIsT.

1857 . by our intervention of privileges and perquisites
■which they had once enjoyed, and "who sa'w before
them a still deeper degradation and a more absolute
ruin, had been seeking just such an opportunity as
now rose up suddenly before them. They had looked
for it in one direction ; they had looked for it in an-
other; and more than once they thought that they
had found it. They thought that they had found
something, of ■which advantage might be taken to
persuade the Native soldiery that their Christian
masters puiq)osed to defile their caste and to destroy
their religion. But the false steps, which we had
hitherto taken, had not been false enough to serve
the purposes of those who had sought to destroy the
British Government by means of a general revolt of
the Native Army. For half a century there had
been nothing of a sufiGiciently palpable and compre-
hensive character to alarm the whole Sepoy Army,
Mahomedan and Hindoo. But now, suddenly, a
story of most terrific import found its way into cir-
culation. It was stated that Government had manu-
factured cartridges, greased with animal fat, for the
use of the Native Army ; and the statement was not
a lie.

BronraBess. The old infantry musket, the venerable Brown
Bess of the British soldier, had been condemned as
a relic of barbarism, and it was wisely determined,
in the Indian as in the English Army, to supersede it
by the issue of an improved description of fi[re-arm,
with grooved bores, after the fashion of a rifle. As a
ball from these new rifled muskets reached the enemy
at a much greater distance than the ammunition of
the old weapon, the Sepoy rejoiced ia the advantage
which would thus be conferred upon him in battle,
'End lauded the Government for what he regarded as

THE GREASED CAETRn)GES.

489

a sign both of the wisdom of his rulers and of their 1S57.
solicitude for his welfare. And when it was learnt
that dep6ts had been established at three great mili-
tary stations for the instruction of the Sepoy in the
use of the new weapon, there was great talk in the
Lines about the wonderful European musket that
was to keep all comers at a distance. But, unhappily,
these rifled barrels could not be loaded without the
lubrication of the cartridge. And the voice of joy
and praise was suddenly changed into a wild cry of
grief and despair when it was bruited abroad that the
cartridge, the end of which was to be bitten off by
the Sepoy, was greased with the fat of the detested
swine of the Mahomedan, or the venerated cow of the
Hindoo. •

How the truth first transpired has been often told. Story of the
Eight miles from Calcutta lies the military station of faftr^lcg.
Dum-Dum. For many years it had been the head-
quarters of the Bengal Artillery. There all the many
distinguished officers of that distinguished corps had
learnt the rudiments of their profession, and many
had spent there the happiest years of their lives. But
it was suddenly discovered that it was not suited to
the purpose for which it was designed. The head-
quarters of the Artillery were removed to Meerut.

The red coat displaced the blue. The barracks and the
mess-house, and the officers’ bungalows, were given
up to other occupants ; and buildings, which from
their very birth had held nothing but the appliances
of ordnance, were degraded into manufactories and
storehouses of small-arm ammunition. Thus, by a
mutation of fortune, when the Enfield Rifle began to
supersede Brown Bess, Dum-Dum became one of
three Cantonments at which the Government esta-
blished Schools of Musketry for instruction in the use

400

TnFi OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

1857. of the improved rifled "weapon. Now, it happened
that, one day in January, a low-caste Lascar, or
magazine-man, meeting a high-caste Sepoy in the
Cantonment, asked him for a drink of water from
his lotah. The Brahmin at once replied with an
objection on the score of caste, and was tauntingly
told that caste was nothing, that high-caste and low-
caste would soon be all the same, as cartridges
smeared with beef-fat and hog’s-lard were being made
for the Sepoys at the dep6ts, and would soon be in
general use throughout the army.*

The Brahmin carried this story to his comrades,
and it was soon known to every Sepoy at the dep6t
A shudder ran through the Lines. Each man to
whom the story was told caught the great fear from
his neighbour, and trembled at the thought of the
pollution that lay before him. The contamination
was to be brought to his very lips ; it was not merely
to be touched, it was to be eaten and absorbed into
his very being. It was so terrible a thing, that, if the
most malignant enemies of the British Government
had sat in conclave for years, and brought an excess
of devilish ingenuity to bear upon the invention of a
scheme framed with the design of alarming the Sepoy
mind from one end of India to the other, they could
not have devised a lie better suited to the purpose.
But now the English themselves had placed in the
hands of their enemies, not a fiction, but a fact of
tremendous significance, to be turned against them as
a deadly instrument of destruction. It was the very
thing that had been so long sought, and up to this
time sought in vain. It req^uired no explanation. It

* No greased cartridges had been only in the rudimenjts of tlieir idfle-
issued at Dum-Bnm. The Sepoys education, and had not come yet to
in the musketry school there were need the application of the grease.

SPREAD OE EVIL TIDINGS.

491

needed no ingenious gloss to make the full force of
the thing itself patent to the multitude. It was not
a suggestion, an inference, a probability ; but a de-
monstrative fact, so complete in its naked truth, that
no exaggeration could have helped it. Like the case
of the leathern head-dresses, which had convulsed
Southern India half a century before, it appealed to
the strongest fecAi^g® both of thr IVfahomedan
the Hindoo; bat though similar in kind, it was in-
comparably more offensive in degree; more insult^
ing, more appalling, more disgusting.

We know so little of Native Indian society beyond
its merest externals, the colour of the people’s skins,
the form of their garments, the outer aspects of their
houses, that History, whilst it states broad results,
can often only surmise causes. But there are some
surmises which have little less than the force of
gospel. We feel what we cannot see, and have faith
in what we cannot prove. It is a fact, that there is a
certain description of news, which travels in India,
from one station to another, with a rapidity almost
electric. Before the days of the “lightning post,”
there was sometimes intelligence in the Bazaars of the
Native dealers and the Lines of the Native soldiers,
especially if the news imported something disastrous
to the British, days before it reached, in any official
shape, the high functionaries of Government.* We
cannot trace the progress of these evil-tidings. The
Natives of India have an expressive saying, that “ it
is in the air.” It often happened that an uneasy feel-

The news of the first outbreak Government House from any official
and massacre at Caubul, in 1841, quarter ; and the mutiny at Barrack-
and also of the subsequent destruc- pore was known by the Sepoys of the
lion of the British Army in the Pass, British force proceeding to Burmah
reached Calcutta through the Ba- before it reached the military and
zaars of Meerut and Kurnal some political chiefs by special express,
days before they found their way to See mte^ p. 269.

1S57.

492

OUTBREAK OE THE MUTINY.

1857 . ing — an impression that something had happened,

though they “ could not discern the shape thereof” —
pervaded men’s minds, in obscure anticipation of the
news that was travelling towards them in all its tan-
gible proportions. All along the line of road, from
town to town, from village to village, were thousands
to whom the feet of those who brought the glad tidings
were beautiful and welcome. The British magistrate,
returning from his evening ride, was perhaps met on
the road near the Bazaar by a venerable Native on
an ambling pony — a Native respectable of aspect,
with white beard and whiter garments, who salaamed
to the English gentleman as he passed, and went on
his way freighted with intelligence refreshing to the
souls of those to whom it was to be communicated,
to be used with judgment and sent on with despatch.
This was but one of many costumes worn by the
messenger of evil. In whatsoever shape he passed,
there was nothing outwardly to distinguish him.
Next morning there was a sensation in the Bazaar,
and a vague excitement in the Sepoys’ Lines. But
when rumours of disaster reached the houses of the
chief English officers, they were commonly discre-
dited. Their own letters were silent on the subject.
It was not likely to be true, they said, as they had
heard nothing about it. But it was true ; and the
news had travelled another hundred miles whilst the
white gentlemen, with bland scepticism, were shaking
their heads over the lies of the Bazaar.

It is difficult, in most cases, to surmise the agency
to whose interested efforts is to be attributed this
rapid circulation of evil tidings. But when the fact
of the. greased cartridges became known, there were
two great motive powers, close at hand, to give an
immediate impulse to the promulgation of the story.

DISSiailKATOES OF EVIL.

493

The political and the religious animosities, excited hy 1857.
the recent measures of the English, were lying in
wait for an opportunity to vent themselves in action.

It happened at this time, that the enmities which we
had most recently provoked had their head-quarters
in Calcutta. It happened, also, that these enmities
had their root partly in Hindooism, partly in Ma-
homedanism. There was the great Brahminical In-
stitution. the Doorma Soobha of Calcutta, whose
special function it was to preserve Hindooism pure
and simple in all its ancestral integrity, and, there-
fore. to resist the invasions and encroachments of the
English, by which it was continually threatened.

There were bygone injuries to revenge, and there
were coming dangers to repel. On the other side,
there was the deposed king-ship of Oude, with all its
perilous surroun^ngs. Sunk in slothfulness and self-
indulgence, with little real care for anything beyond
the enjoyment of the moment, Wajid Ali himself may
have neither done nor suggested anything, in this
crisis, to turn to hostile account the fact of the greased
cartridges. But there were those about him with
keener eyes, and stronger wills, and more resolute ac-
tivities, who were not likely to sufFer such an oppor-
tunity to escape. It needed no such special agencies
to propagate a story, which would have travelled, in
ordinary course of accidental tale-bearing, to the dif-
ferent stations in the neighbourhood of the capital.

But it was expedient in the eyes of our enemies that
it should at once be invested with all its terrors, and
the desired effect wrought upon the Sepoy’s mind, be-
fore any one could be induced, by timely official ex-
planation, to believe that the outrage was an accident,
an oversight, a mistake. So, from the beginning, the
story went forth that the English, in prosecution of a

494

OUTBKEAK OP THE MUTINY.

1857 . long-ctierisliecl design, and under instructions from
the Queen in Council, had greased the Sepoys’ car-
tridges with the fat of pigs and cows, for the express
purpose of defiling both Mahomedans and Hindoos.

On the banks of the Hooghly River, sixteen miles
from Calcutta by land, is the great military sta-
tion of Barrackpore. It was the head-quarters of
the Presidency division of the Army. There was
assembled the largest body of Native troops cantoned
in that part of India. There, on the green slopes of
the river, stood, in a weU-wooded park, the country-
seat of the Governor-General. Both in its social and
its military aspects it was the foremost Cantonment of
Bengal. As the sun declined on the opposite bank,
burnishing the stream with gold, and throwing into
dark relief the heavy masses of the native boats, the
park roads were alive with the equipages of the Eng-
lish residents. There visitors from Calcutta, escaping
for a while from the white glare and the dust-laden
atmosphere of the metropolis, consorted with the
families of the military officers ; and the neighbouring
■\illas of Titaghur sent forth their retired inmates to
join the throng of “ eaters of the evening air.” There
the young bride, for it was a rare place for honey-
moons, emerging from her seclusion, often looked out
upon the world for the first time in her new state.
There many a young ensign, scarcely less hopeful
and less exultant, wore for the first time the bridal
garments of his profession, and backed the capering
Arab that had consumed a large part of his worldly
wealth. It was a pleasant, a gay, a hospitable sta-
tion ; and there was not in all India a Cantonment
so largely known and frequented by the English,
lliere was scarcely an oflficer of the Bengal Army to
-whom the name of Barrackpore did not suggest some

THE BAEEA.CKPOEE BRIGADE.

495

familiar associations, whilst to numbers of the non- 1857.
military classes, whose occupations tied them to the
capital, it was, for long years, perhaps throughout
the whole of their money-getting career, the extreme
point to which their travels extended.

At Barrackpore, in the early part of 1857, were
stationed four Native Infantry regiments. There were
the Second Grenadiers* and the Forty-third, two of
the “ beautiful regiments” which had helped General
Nott to hold Candahar against all comers, and had
afterwards gained new laurels in desperate conflict
with the Mahrattas and Sikhs. There was the Thirty-
fourth, an iU-omened number, for a few years before
it had been struck out of the Army List for mutiny,f
and a new regiment had been raised to fiU the dis-
honourable gap. There also was the Seventieth, which
had rendered good service in the second Sikh war.

Three of these regiments had been recently stationed
in the Punjab, or on its frontier, and the Thirty
fourth had just come down from Lucknow. This
last regiment was commanded by Colonel S. G.
Wheler, who had but recently been posted to it
from another corps ; the Forty-third was under
Colonel J. D. Kennedy, whose tenure of command
had also been brief; whilst the Seventieth and the
wing of the Second were commanded by officers who
had graduated in those regiments, and were there-
fore well known to the men. The station was com-
manded by Brigadier Charles Grant ; and the General
of Division was that brave soldier and distinguished
officer, John Hearsey, of whose services I have al-
ready spoken in a previous chapter of this work.J

“•* A wing of this regiment was at J See Book IT. — Account of the

Ban egunge. , p. Mutiny in the Punjab.

Ante, p. 298.4 »

496

THE OCTBEEAK OF THE MOTINT.

1857. On the 28th of January, Hearsay reported officially
to the Adjutant-General’s office that an ill-feeling was
“said to subsist in the minds of the Sepoys of the
regiments at Barrackpore.” “ A report,” he said,
“has been spread by some designing persons, most
likely Brahmins, or agents of the reli^ous Hindoo
party in Calcutta (I believe it is called the ‘ Dharma
Sobha’), that the Sepoys are to be forced to embrace
the Christian faith.” “ Perhaps,” he added, “ those
Hindoos who are opposed to the marriage of widows
in Calcutta* are using underhand means to thwart
Government in abolishing the restraints lately re-
moved by law for the marriage of widows, and con-
ceive, if they can make a party of the ignorant classes
in the ranks of the army believe their religion or
religious prejudices are eventually to be abolished by
force, and by force they are all to be made Christians,
and thus, by shaking their faith in Government, lose
the confidence of their officers by inducing Sepoys to
commit ofiences (such as incendiarism), so difficult to
put a stop to or prove, they will gain their object.”
The story of the greased cartridges was by this time
in every mouth. There was not a Sepoy in the Lines
of Barrackpore who was not familiar with it. There
were few who did not believe that it was a deliberate
plot, on the part of the English, designed to break
down the caste of the Native soldier. And many
were persuaded that there was an ultimate design to
bring aU men, along a common road of pollution, to
the unclean faith of the beef-devouring, swine-eating
Feringhee, who had conquered their country and now
yearned to extirpate the creeds of their countrymen.

There was a time, perhaps, when the Sepoy would

The General,^ doubtless, meant who are opposed to the marriage of
to say, “ those Hindoos in Calcutta widows.**

EXCITEMENT AT BAEEACRPORE.

497

have carried the story to his commanding officer, and 1SS7.
sought an explanation of it. Such confidences had
ceased to be a part of the relations between them.

But it was not the less manifest that the Native
soldiery at Barrackpore were boiling over with bitter
discontent. They had accepted not only the fact as
it came to them from Dum-Dum, but the accom-
panying lies which had been launched from Calcutta ;
and they soon began, after the fashion of their kind,
to make a public display of their wrath. It is their
wont in such cases to symbolise the inner fires that
are. consuming them by acts of material incendiarism.

No sooner is the Sepoy troubled in his mind, and
bent on resistance, than he begins covertly in the
night to set fire to some of the public buildings of
the place. Whether this is an ebullition of childish
anger — an outburst of irrepressible feeling in men
not yet ripe for more reasonable action ; or whether
it be intended as a signal, whether the fires are beacon-
fires lit up to warn others to be stirring, they are
seldom or never wanting in such conjunctures as this.

A few days after the story of the greased cartridges
first transpired at Dum-Dum, the telegraph station
at Barrackpore was burnt down. Then, night after
night, followed other fires. Burning arrows were shot
into the thatched roofs of officers’ bungalows. It was
a trick learnt from the Sonthals, among whom the
Second Grenadiers had served ; and the fact that
similar fires, brought about by the same means, were
breaking out at Raneegunge, more than a hundred
miles away, stamped their complicity in the crime,
for one wing of the regiment was stationed there.

These incendiary fires were soon followed by noc-
turnal meetings. Men met each other with muflled
faces, and discussed, in excited language, the intole*

2 K

498

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

1837. rable outrage wMcli the British Government had
deliberately committed upon them. It is probable
that they were not all Sepoys who attended these
nightly musters. It is probable that they were not
aU Sepoys who signed the letters that went forth
from the post-offices of Calcutta and Barrackpore,
calling upon the soldiery at all the principal stations of
the Bengal Army to resist the sacrilegious encroach-
ments of the English. AU that is clearly known is,
that the meetings were held, that the letters were
sent ; and Cantonment after Cantonment fermented
with the story of the greased cartridges.

The nratiny A hundred miles from Barrackpore, to the north-

^ Berham- .^^rd, on the banks of the river, lies the military station
of Berhampore. It was one well suited, by its position,
for the development of the desired results. For only
a few miles beyond it lay the city of Moorshedabad,
the home of the Newab Nazim of Bengal, the repre-
sentative of the line of Soubahdars, who, under the
Imperial Government, had once ruled that great
province. It was kno-\vn that the Newab, who,
though stripped of his ancestral power, lived in a
palace with great wealth and titular dignity and the
surroundings of a Court, was rankling under a sense
of indignities put upon him by the British Govern-
ment, and that there were thousands in the city who
would have risen at the signal of one who, weak him-
self, was yet strong in the prestige of a great name.
At Berhampore, there were no European troops;
there were none anywhere near to it. A regiment
of Native, Infantry, the Nineteenth, was stationed
there, with a corps of Irregular Caval^, and a battery
of post guns manned by native gunners. It was not
difficult to see that if these troops were to rise against
their English officers, and the people of Moorshedabad

THE THIRTY-FOUETH AT BERHAMPORE.

499

Yvere to fraternise with them, in the name of the
Newah, all Bengal would soon be in a blaze. No
thoughts of this kind disturbed the minds of our
people, but the truth was very patent to the under-
standings of their enemies.

It happened, too, unfortunately at this time, that
the routine-action of the British Government favoured
the gro’wth of the evil ; for when the excitement was
great at Barrackpore, detachments went forth on
duty from the most disaffected regiments of all to,
spread by personal intercourse the great contagion of
alarm. Firstly, a guard from the Thirty-fourth went
upwards in charge of stud-horses ; and then, a week
later, another detachment from this regiment marched
in the same direction with a party of European con-
valescents. At Berhampore they were to be relieved
by men from the regiment there, and then to return
to their own head-quarters ; so that they had an
opportunity of communicating all that was going on
at Barrackpore to their comrades of the Nineteenth,
of learning their sentiments and designs, and carry-
ing back to their own station, far more clearly and
unmistakably than could any correspondence by
letter, tidings of the state of feeling among the troops
at Berhampore, and the extent to which they were
prepared to resist the outrage of the greased car-
tridges.

When the men of the Thirty-fourth reached Ber-
hampore, their comrades of the Nineteenth received
them open-armed and open-mouthed. They were old
associates, for, not long before, they had been stationed,
together at Lucknow ; and now the Nineteenth asked
eagerly what strange story was this that they had
heard from Barrackpore about the greasing of the
cartridges. It was not then a new story in the Lines,

2 k2

185 ?.

600

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

1857 of Berhampore, but was already two weeks old.* It
bad been carried as quickly as the post or special
messenger could carry it from the one station to the
other, and it was soon afterwards in every man’s
mouth. But it had wrought no immediate etfoct
upon the outer bearing of the Sepoys of the Nine-
teenth. The story was carried to the commanding
officer, who gave an assuring reply, saying that, if
there were any doubts in their minds, the men might
see for themselves the grease applied to their car-
tridges ; and so for a while the excitement was allayed.
But when the men of the Thirty-fourth went up from
Barrackpore and spoke of the feeling there — spoke of
the general belief among the Sepoys at the Presidency
that the Government deliberately designed to defile
them, and of the intended resistance to this foul and
fraudulent outrage — ^the Nineteenth listened to them
as to men speaking with high authority, for they
came from the very seat of Government, and were
not likely to err. So they took in the story as it was
told to them with a comprehensive faith, and were
soon in that state of excitement and alarm which is
so often the prelude of dangerous revolt.

On the day after the arrival of the detachment
from Barrackpore, a parade of the Nineteenth was
Feb. 27. ordered for the following morning. It was an ordi-
nary parade, “accidental,” meaning nothing. But it
was a parade “ with blank ammunition,” and a mean-
ing was found. There were in the morning no ap-

* The first detachment of Ihe about, that Government intend to
Thirty-fourih reached Berhampore make (he Native Army use cow’s fat
on the 18th of February, the second and pig’s fat with the ammunition
on (he 25th. Colonel Mitchell, for their new rifles?” It must have
writing on February 10, says, that reached Berharapore,therefore, either
about a fortnight before a Brahmin by the post or by Cossid (messen-
Pay-Havildar had asked him, “ What ger) at the very bemuning of the
is this story (hat everybody is talking month of February. ”

EXaTEMENT IN THE NINETEENTH.

501

parent signs of disaffection, but, before the evening
had passed away. Adjutant M ‘Andrew carried to the
quarters of Colonel Mitchell a disquieting report, to
the effect that there was great excitement in the
Lines; that when their percussion-caps had been
served out to them for the morning’s parade, the
men had refused to take them, and that they had
given as the ground of their refusal the strong sus-
picion they entertained that the cartridges had been
defiled. It was the custom not to distribute the
cartridges among the men before the morning of
pamde ; but the general supply for the regiment had
been served out from the magazine,' and, before being
stored away for the night, had been seen by some of
the Sepoys of the corps. Now, it happened that the
paper of which the cartridges were made was, to the
outward eye, of two different kinds, and, as the men
had heard that fresh supplies of ammunition had
been received from Calcutta in the course of the
month, they leapt at once to the conviction that new
cartridges of the dreaded kind had been purposely
mixed up with the old, and the panic that had been
growing upon them culminated in this belief.*

Upon receipt of this intelligence, Mitchell at once
started for the Lines, and summoned his native
officers to meet him in the front of the Quarter-
Guard. In such a conjuncture, a calm but resolute
demeanour, a few words of kindly explanation and of
solemn warning, as from one not speaking for himself
but for a benignant and a powerful Government,
might have done much to convince those Native

officers, and through them the Sepoys of the regi-

* The fact, however, was, that cutta, which consisted mainly of
there were no cartridges among the powder in barrels,
stores recently received from Cal-

185?.

'502

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINT.

18S7. ment, that they had laid hold of a dangerous delu-
sion. But Mitchell spoke as one under the excite-
ment of anger, and he threatened rather than he
warned. He said that the cartridges had been made
up, a year before, by the regiment that had preceded
them in cantonments, that there was no reason for
their alarm, and that if, after this explanation, they
should refuse to take their ammunition, the regiment
would he sent to Burmah or to China, wliere the
men w'ould die,* and that the severest punishment
would • overtake every man known to have actively
resisted the orders of his Government. So the Native
officers went their way, with no new confidence de-
rived from the words that had fallen from their
Colonel, hut, on the other hand, strengthened in all
their, old convictions of imminent danger to their
caste and their religion. He would not have spoken
so angrily, they argued, if mischief had not been in-
tended. They looked upon the irritation he displayed
as a proof that his sinister designs had been inoppor-
tunely discovered.f

Such was the logic of their fears. Colonel Mitchell
went to his home ; but as he drove thither through
the darkness of the night, with the Adjutant beside
him, he felt that there was danger in the air, and that

* After reading all the evidence &c. &c. : for Mitchell had denied it
that I can find throwing light upon on the 18th of March, saying, ** I
'this scene at the Quarter-Guard, I certainly did not make use of the ex-
am forced upon tlie conviction that pressioii above quoted.” — lieutenant-
Colonel Mitchell did use some such Colonel Mitchll to Asmtant-Adju-
words as these. Lord Canning was, tani-GeneraL published ^apen,
however, under an erroneous ira- f “ He gave tliis order so angrily,
pression when he wrote in his minute that we were convinced that the
of May 13, “ The inconsiderate cartridges were greased, otherwise
threat, that if the men did not re- he would not have spoken so.” —
ceive their cartridges he would take ’Petition of the Native Officers of
them'to Burmah or to China, where the Nineteenth Repimeni. Puhlished
they would die, wliicli is not denied Papers,

Dy Lieutenant -Colonel Mitchell,”

MUTINY OF THE NINETEENTH.

503

something must he done to meet it. But what could i.*57.
he done? There were no white troops at Berham-
pore, and the Nineteenth Regiment composed the
hulk of the hlack soldiery. But there were a regi-
ment of Irregular Cavalry and a detachment of
Native Artillery, with guns, posted at the station,
and, as these dwelt apart from the Infantry, they
might not he tainted hy the same disease. Weaker
in numbers, as compared with the Infantry, they had
a countervailing strength in their guns and horses. A
few rounds of grape, and a charge of Cavalry with
drawn sahres, might destroy a regiment of Foot be-
yond all further hope of resistance. Mitchell might
not have thought that things would come to this
pass ; it was his object to overawe, and, hy over-
awing, to prevent the crisis. But, whatsoever his
thoughts at that time, he issued his orders that the
Cavalry and Artillery should be prepared to attend
the morning parade.

In India, men retire early to their rest, for they
seldom outsleep the dawn. It was little past the hour
of ten, therefore, when Mitchell, just having betaken
himself to his couch, heavy with thought of the
morrow’s workj was startled by the sound of a strange
commotion from the direction of the Lines. There
■was a beating of drums, and there were shoutings
from many voices, and a confused uproar, the mean-
ing of which it was impossible to misinterpret.
Plainly the Regiment had risen. Ever since the
Colonel’s interview with the Native officers the ex-
citement had increased. It had transpired that the
Cavalry and Artillery had been ordered out. Sus-
picions of foul play then grew into assured convic-
tions, and the Regiment felt, to a man, that the
greased cartridges were to be forced upon them at the

504

OUTBREAK OF THE IIUTIKT.

1SB7. muzzle of our guns. A great panic had taken hold
of them, and it required but little to rouse them, in
an impulse of self-preservation, to resist the premedi-
tated outrage. How the signal was first given is not
clear ; it seldom is clear in such cases. A very little
would have done it. There was a common feeling of
some great danger, approaching through the darkness
of the night. Some raised a cry of “Fire!”; some,
again, said that the Cavalry were galloping down
upon them ; others thought that they heard in the
distance the clatter of the Artillery gun-wheels. Then
some one sounded the alarm, and there was a general
rush to the hells-of-arms. Men seized their muskets,
took forcible possession of the dreaded ammunition
stored for the morning parade, and loaded their
pieces in a bewilderment of uncertainty and fear.

Mitchell knew that the Regimeiit had risen, but he
did not know that it was Terror, rather than Revolt,
that stirred them ; and so hastily dressing himself, he
hurried off to bring down upon his men the very
danger the premature fear of which had generated all
this excitement in the Lines. Before any report of
the tumult had reached him from European or from
Native oflGicers, he had made his way to the quarters
of the Cavalry Commandant, and ordered him at
once to have his troops in the saddle. Then like
orders were given for the Artillery guns, with all
serviceable ammunition, to be brought down to the
Infantry Lines. There was a considerable space to
be traversed, and the extreme darkness of the night
rendered the service difficult. But, after a while, the
Nineteenth heard the din of the approaching danger,
and this time mth the fleshly ear ; saw the light of
gleaming torches which was guiding it on to their
destruction. But they stood there, not ripe for

MEASURES OF COLONEL MITCHELL.

505

action, irresolute, panic-struck, as men waiting their 1857.
doom. There were many loaded muskets in their
hands, but not one was fired.

It was past midnight when Mitchell, having gathered
his European ofiicers from their beds, came down
with the guns to the parade-ground, where Alexander
and his troopers had already arrived. The Infantry,
in undress, but armed and belted, were drawn up in
line, vaguely expectant of something to come, but in
no mood to provoke instant collision. A very little,
at such a time, would have precipitated it, for the ex-
citement of fear, in such circumstances, is more to he
dreaded than the bitterest resentments, and even if
the European officers had then moved forward in a
body, the movement would have been exaggerated by
the darkness into a hostile advance, and the Nine-
teenth, under an impulse of self-preservation, would
have fired upon them. What Mitchell did, therefore,
in the unfortunate conjuncture that had arisen, was
the best thing that could be done. He loaded the
guns, closed the Cavalry upon them, and sent the
Adjutant forward with instructions to have the call
sounded for an assembly of the Native officers. The
summons was obeyed. Again the Native officers
stood before their Colonel, and again there fell from
his lips words that sounded in their ears as words of
anger. What those words were, it is now impossible
to record with any certainty of their truth. The
Native officers believed that he said he would blow
every mutineer from a gun, although he should die
for it himself. They besought him not to be angry
and violent, and urged that the men were ignorant
and suspicious ; that they were impelled only by their
fears ; that believing the Cavalry and Artillery had
been brought down to destroy them, they were wild

506

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINT.

1557 . with, excitement and incapable of reasoning, but that
if the Colonel would send back the troopers and the
guns, the men of the Regiment would soon lay down
their arms and return to their duty.

Then a great difl&culty arose, which, in the darkness
and confusion of that February night, might have
perplexed a calmer brain than Mitchell’s. That the
isineteenth were rather panic-struck than mutinous,
was certain. It was plain, too. that a mistake had
been committed- in bringing down the Cavaliy and
guns to overawe the Regiment. It would have been
wiser, in the first instance, to have used them only
for protective purposes, holding them in readiness the
while to act on the offensive in case of necessity.
But, as they had been brought down to the Infantry
Lines, it was difficult to withdraw them, until the
Mneteenth had given in their submission. The men,
liowever, required, as a condition of their submission,
that which Mitchell naturally desired should be re-
garded only as a consequence of it. Clinging fast to
the belief that violence was intended, they would not
have obeyed the order to lay down their arms ; and
Mitchell could not be certain that the Native troopers
and gunners would fall upon their comrades at the
word of command. There was a dilemma, indeed,
from which it was difficult, if not impossible, to escape
with safety and with honour. As men are wont to
do in such extremities, he caught at a compromise.
He would withdraw the guns and the Cavalry, he
said, but he would hold a general parade in the
morning ; he commanded the station, and could order
out aU. branches of the service. But the Native officers
besought him not to do this, for the Sepoys, in such
a case, would believe only that the violence intended
to be done upon them was deferred for a few hours.

THE COURT OF INQUIRY.

507

So he consented at last to what they asked; the
Cavalry and the guns were withdrawn, and the ge-
neral parade for the morning was countermanded.
Whether the Sepoys of the Nineteenth had shown
signs of penitence before this concession was made,
and had or had not begun to lay down their arms, is
a point of history enveloped in doubt. But it would
seem that the Native otficers told Colonel Mitchell
that the men were lodging their arms, and that he
trusted to their honour. The real signal for their
submission was the retrocession oi‘ the torches. When
the Sepoys saw the lights disappearing from the
parade-ground, they knew that they were safe.

On the following morning the Regiment fell in, for
parade, without a symptom of insubordination. The
excitement of the hour had expended itself ; and they
looked back upon their conduct with regret, and
looked forward to its consequences with alarm.
Though moved by nothing worse than idle fear,
they had rebelled against their officers and the State.
Assured of their contrition, and believing in their
fidelity, the former might perhaps have forgiven
them ; but it was not probable that the State would
forgive. A Court of Inquiry was assembled, and
during many days the evidence of European and
Native officers was taken respecting the circumstances
and causes of the outbreak; but the men, though
clearly demonstrating their apprehensions by sleeping
round the bells-of-arms, continued to discharge their
duties without any new ebullitions ; and there was
no appearance of any hostUe combinations, by which
the mutiny of a regiment naight have been converted
into the rebellion of a province. Under the guid-
ance of Colonel George Maegregor, the Newab Nazira
of Bengal threw the weight of his influence into the

1857.

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

SOS

1857. scales on tlie side of order and peace ; and whatso-
ever might have been stirring in the hearts of the
Mussulman population of Moorshedabad, in the ab-
sence of any signal from their chief, they remained
outwardly quiescent

ACTION OP GOVERNMENT.

509

CHAPTER y.

CAUSES OE DELATED ACTIOS —THE GOVERNMENT AND THE DEPARTMENTS—
INVESTIGATION OP THE CARTRIDGE QUESTION — PROGRESS OP DISAPPEC-
TION AT 11ARRACK.PORE — THE STORY OP MUNGUL PANDY — MUTINY OP THE
THIRTY-POURTII — DISBANDMENT OP THE NINETEENTH.

In all countries, and under all forms of govern-
ment, the dangers which threaten the State, starting
in the darkness, make headway towards success
before they are clearly discerned by the rulers of the
land. Often so much of time and space is gained,
that the slow and complex action of authority can-
not overtake the mischief and intercept its further
progress. The peculiarities of our Anglo-Indian
Empire converted a probability into a certainty.
Differences of race, differences of language, differ-
ences of religion, differences of customs, all indeed
that could make a great antagonism of sympathies
and of interests, severed the rulers and the ruled as
with a veil of ignorance and obscurity. We could
not see or hear with our own senses what was going
on, and there was seldom any one to tell us. When
by some accident the truth at last transpired, gene-
rally in some of the lower strata of the official soil,
much time was lost before it could make its way

510

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTIXY.

1857. upwards to tlie outer surface of that authority
whence action, which could no longer be preventive,
emanated in some shape of attempted suppression.
The great safeguard of sedition was to be found in
the slow processes of departmental correspondence
necessitated by a system of excessive centralisation.
When prompt and effectual action was demanded,
Routine called for pens and paper. A letter was
written where a blow ought to have been struck,
and the letter went, not to one who could act, but
Avas passed on to another stage of helplessness, and
then on to another, through all gradations, from the
subaltern’s bungaloAV to the Government House.

The direction of the military affairs of our Indian
Empire was supposed to be confided to the Corn-
man der-in-Chief. But there was a general power ‘of
control in the Governor-General that made the trust
little more than nominal. So little were the limits
of authority prescribed by law, or even by usage,
that, it has already been observed, there was often
a conflict between the Civil and the Military Chiefs,
which in time ripened into a public scandal, or
subsided into a courteous compromise, according
to the particular temper of the litigants. Sensible
of his power, the Governor-General was naturally
anxious to leave all purely military matters in the
hands of the Commander-in-Chief ; but in India it
Avas hard to say what were “ purely military ”
naatters, when once the question emerged out of the
circle of administrative detail. As harmonious action
was constitutionally promoted by the bestowal upon
the Commander-in-Chief of a seat in Council, there
ATould have been little practical inconvenience in the
diArision of authority if the Civil and the Military
Chiefs had always been in the same place. But it
often happened that the Governor-General, with his

THE DEPAETMEXTS.

511

official machinery of the Military Secretary’s office,
was at one end of the country, and the Commander-
in-Chief, with the Adjutant-General of the Army, at
the other. And so it happened in the early part of
1857. Lord Canning was at Calcutta. General Anson
was officially in the Upper Provinces ; personally he
was somewhere in Lower Bengal.* The Adjutant-
General was at Meerut. The Adjutant -General’s
office was in Calcutta. The Inspector-General of
Ordnance was in Fort William. All these autho-
rities had something to do with the business of the
greased cartridges, and it Avas a necessity that out of
a system which combined a dispersed agency Avith a
centralised authority, there should have arisen some
injurious delay.

But the delay, thus doubly inevitable, arose rather
in this instance from the multiplicity of official
agencies, than from the distance at which they were
removed from each other. On the 22nd of January,
Lieutenant Wright, who commanded the detachment
of the Seventieth Sepoys at Dum-Dum, reported to
the commanding officer of the musketry dep6t the
story of the greased cartridges, and the excitement it
had produced. Major Bontein, on the following day,
reported it to the commanding officer at Dum-Dum,
who forthwith passed it on to the General command-
ing the Presidency division at Bartackpore. On the
same day. General Hearsey forwarded the correspond-
ence to the Deputy-Adjutant-Gen^al, Avho remained
in charge of the office at, Calcutta in the absence of
his chief. But though thus acting in accordance
Avith military regulations, he took the precaution to

* Just at this time General Anson Sepoys were in the first tliroes of
was coming down to Calcutta to their discontent; but it does not
superintend the embarkation of his appear that the subject of the greased
wife for England- He must have cartridges then attracted his atten-i
been actually in Calcutta when the tion.

1867.

512

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTIIfT.

1857. add that he forwarded the correspondence “ for im-
mediate submission to the Government of India,
through its Military Secretary,” and suggested thal
the Sepoys at the Rifle depot should he permitted to
grease their own eartridges. General Hearsey’s letter
must have reached the Adjutant-General’s office on
the 24th of January; perhaps not till after office
hours. The following day was the Sabbath. The
letter of “ immediate transmission” was dated, there-
fore, on the 26th.* On the foEowing day, the Go-
vernment of India, through its Military Secretary,
addressed a letter to the Adjutant-General’s offiee
sanctioning Hearsey’s suggestion. On the 28th, the
General received the official sanction, and at once
directed the concession to be made kno-wn to all the
regiments in Barrackpore. But it was too late. On
the previous day, a significant question had been put
by a Native offieer on parade, as to whether any
orders had been received. The reply was necessarily
in the negative. Had it not been for the interven-
tion of the Adjutant-General’s office. General Hear-
sey might have received his reply four days before.
Whilst we were corresponding, our enemies were act-
ing ; and so the lie went ahead of us apace.

Onward and onward it went, making its way
throughout Upper India with significant embellish-
ments, aided by the enemies of the British Govern-
ment, whflst that Government looked at the matter in
its naked reality, divested of all the outer crust of lies
which it had thus acquired. Confident of their own
good intentions, the English chiefs saw only an acci-
dent, an oversight, to be easily rectified and explained.
There did not seem to be anything dangerously irre-

* It is right that this should be the year should he consulted, that
borne m mind. In all cases of al- account may be taken of dim non.
legcd offichil delays the alninnack of " ^

COLONEL BIECn.

513

parable in it. But it was, doubtless, right that they
should probe the matter to its very depths, and do
aU that could be done to allay the inquietude in the
Sepoy’s mind. It was hardly to be expected that the
Governor-General, who at that time had been less
than a year in India, should see at once all the diffi-
culties of the position. But he had men of large ex-
perience at his elboAv ; and it was wise to confide in
them. In such an emergency as had then arisen,, the
Military Secretary to the Government of India Avas
the functionary whose especial duty it Avas to infonn
and advise the Governor-General. That office A\'as
represented by Colonel Richard Birch, an officer of
the Company’s Army, Avho had served for many years
at the head of the Judge Advocate’s department, and
AA'as greatly esteemed as an able, clear-headed man of
business, of unstained reputation in private life. Lord
Dalhousie, no mean judge of character, had selected
him for this important office, and Lord Canning soon
recognised the Avisdom of the choice. The Military
Secretary had no independent authority, but in such
a conjuncture as this much might be done to aid
and accelerate the movements of Government ; and
had he then sate down idly and waited the result, or
had he suffered any time to be lost Avhilst feebly
meditating action, a heaA^y weight of blame avouH
have descended upon him, past all hope of removal.
But Avhen he heard that the detachments at Dum-
Dura Averc in a state of excitement, his first thought
Avas to ascertain the truth or the falsehood of the
alleged cause of alarm; so he AA'ent at once to the
Chief of the Ordnance Department to learn Avhat
had been done.

At that time, the post of Inspector-General of Ord-
nance was held by Colonel Augustus Abbott, an Ar-

2 1 .

1.357

514

OUTBREAK OE THE MUTINY.

iS57. tillery officei* of high repute, who had earned a name
in history as one of the “ Illustrious Garrison of J ol-
lalahad.” His first impression was, that some greased
cartridges had been issued to the Dep6t at Dum-
Dum ; and it was admitted that no inquiries had
been made into the natural history of the lubricating
material. But he was relieved from all anxiety on
this score by a visit from Major Bontein, the In-
structor, who asked Abbott to show him a greased
cartridge. The fact was, that though large numbers
had been manufactured, none had ever been issued to
the Native troops at Dum-Dum or any other station
in the Presidency Division.* The discovery, it was
thought, had been made in time to prevent the dan-
gerous consequences which might have resulted from
the oversight. It would be easy to cease altogether
from the use of the obnoxious fat ; easy to tell the
Sepoys that they might grease the cartridges after their
own fashion. The uneasiness, it was believed, would
soon pass away, under the influence of soothing expla-
nations. It was plain, however, that what had hap-
pened at Dum-Dum might happen at the other mili-
tary stations, where schools of musketry had been esta-
blished and the new rifles were being brought into use.
The regiments there would assuredly soon hear the
alarm-note pealing upwards from Bengal. But though
some time had been lost, the “lightning post” might
still overtake the letters or messages of the Sepoys
before they could reach Umballah and Sealkote.

So Birch, having thus clearly ascertained the real
fact of the greased cartridges, went at once to the
Governor-General, and asked his permission to take

* It should be stated tliat mucli the ammunition manufnetuved tlicriB
of the laboratory work of the Ar- ’ was always’ sent to the Arselial and
senal of Tort mlliam was actually issued thence to the. troops,
carried on at ; but that

ORDERS TO THE RIFLE DEPOTS.

515

immediate steps to re-assure the minds of the Sepoys 18S7.
at all the Musketry Dep&ts. The permission ms January 27.
granted, and orders were forthwith sent to Dum-
Dum ; whilst the Electric Telegraph Avas set at work
to instruct the Adjutant-General of the Army, at
Meerut, to issue all cartridges free from grease, and
to allow the Sepoys to apply with their OAvn hands
Avhatever suitable mixture they might prefer. For,
at Meerut, a large manufacture of greased cartridges
was going on, without any fear of the results.* At
the same time he telegraphed to the commanding
officers of the Rifle Dep6ts at Umballah and Sealkote,
not to use any of the greased cartridges that might
hai'e been issued for service Avith the ncAv rifles. It
Avas recommended, at the same time, by Birch and
Abbott, that a General Order should be published by
the Commander-in-Chief, setting forth that no greased
cartridges would be issued to the Sepoy troops, but
that every man Avould be permitted to lubricate his
OAvn ammunition Avith any materials suitable to the
purpose. But plain as all this seemed to be, and
apparently unobjectionable, an objection Avas found
at Meerut to the course proposed in Calcutta; and
the Adjutant-General, AA'hen he received his message,
telegraphed back to the Military Secretary that Na-
tive troops had been using greased cartridges “for
some years,” and the grease had been composed of
mutton-fat. “ WiU not,” it Avas asked, “ your in-
structions make the Sepoys suspicious about what
hitherto they have not hesitated to handle?” Fur-
ther orders Avere requested; and, on the 29th of
January, a message Avent from Calcutta to the Head-

* Materials for 100,000 cartridges, Calcutta Arsenal to Meerut in Oc-
with implements of manufacture and tobeivl856. These were for the uae
pattern cartridges, were sent from the of the Sixtieth Hides.

2l2

516

outbreak: of the mutiny.

1857. Quarters of the Army, stating that the existing prac-
tice of greasing cartridges might be continued, if the
materials were of mutton-fat and was.*

Prompt measures having thus been taken to pre-
vent the issue of greased cartridges prepared in Cal-
cutta or Meerut to any Native troops — and with such
success that from first to last no such cartridges ever
were issued to themf — the authorities, perhaps a
little perplexed by this sudden explosion in a season
of all-prevailing quiet, began to inquire how it had
aU happened. Not without some difficulty, for there
were apparent contradictions in the statements that
reached them, the whole history of the greased car-
tridges was at last disentangled. It was this. In 1853,
the authorities in England sent out to India some
boxes of greased cartridges. The lubricating mate-
rial was of different kinds ; but tallow entered largely
into the composition of it all. It was sent out, not
for service, but for experiment, in order that the
effect of the climate upon the cartridges thus greased
might be ascertained. But it did not wholly escape
our high military functionaries in India, that these
greased cartridges, if care were not taken to exclude
all obnoxious materials from their composition, could
not be served out to Native troops without risk of
serious danger. Colonel Henry Tucker was, at that
time, Adjutant-General of the Bengal Army, and he

* See tbe telegrams publislied in
the papers laid before Parliament.
I merely state the fact that such
messages were sent. But I Lave
found it im|>05sible to reconcile the
assertion oi the Adjutant-General,
that cartridges smeared with mutton-
fat had been in use, with the actual
facts of the case, as given in the fol-
lowing pages on the very highest
authority. I am assured* that the

only grease used with the ammuni-
tion of the old tw^o-grooved rifles
was a mixture of wax and oil ap-
plied to the ‘‘patch.*’
f This was officially declared by
Government, and in perfect gooci
faith. I believe, however, that some
greased cartridges were served out
to a Goorkha regiment, at their
own request.

COLONEL tucker’s WARNINGS.

517

obtained tlie permission of the Commander-in-Chief 13:7.
to sound a note of warning on the subject. There
was in those days even a greater complication of
military authority than when Lord Canning presided
over the Government. There was an institution
called the Military Board, composed of certain ex-
officio members, one special salaried member, and a
Secretary who did the greater part of the work.

The trite adage that “ Boards are Screens” was veri-
fied in this instance, if in no other, for responsibility
Avas effectually obscured. It fell within the range of
the Board’s multifarious functions to direct the ex-
periments which were to be made with the greased
cartridges ; so Colonel Tucker, in due official course,
addressed a letter to the Secretary to the Military
Board on the subject of these experiments, adding,

“I am at the same time to communicate the Com- December
mander-in-Chief’s opinion, that, unless it be knoivn
that the grease employed in these cartridges is not of
a nature to offend or interfere with the prejudices of
caste, it will be expedient not to issue them for test
to Native corps, but to European soldiers only to be
carried in pouch.” But it does not seem that this
warning had any effect upon the Military Board.*

The ammunition to be tested was served out to Na-
tive Guards at Fort William, Cawnpore, and Ran-

* Colonel Tucker afterwards said Commander-in-Cliief to address tlie
ill a public journal, “I do not pre- Military Board, and for the Military
sume to say with whom specifically Board to address the Governor-Ge-
the blame of this most culpable neral. In this case, however, the
iiejijlect may rest. Only investiga- correspondence never went further
tion can settle that point ; but I than the Military Board ; and it was
conceive that either the Military not until after the mutiny had broken
Secretary or the officer presiding in out, and Colonel (tlien Major-Ge-
chief over the Ordnance Department neral) Tucker had publicly referred
in Calcutta, is, one or both, the party to his neglected warnings, that the
implicated.” Investigation proves Military Secretary had any kno^w-
that both officers were blameless, ledge of I he correspondence of 185ii.

The routine in those days was for the

518

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

1S57. goon, wlio carried it in tlieir pouches, and handed it
from man to man every time that the guard was
relieved. After being thus tested for many months,
the cartridges were reported upon by Committees of
European officers drawn, from Native Infantry Regi-
ments, and eventually sent back to England with
these reports. No objection was ever made by the
Sepoys to the handling of the cartridges, and none
were ever started by their regimental officers or by
the Committees.

The Sixtieth (Queen’s) Rifles were at this time
serving in India, but the weapon which they used
was that known as the two-grooved rifle ; and the
ammunition consisted of a cartridge of powder only,
and, separate from this cartridge, a baU covered with
a “patch” of fine cloth, which was smeared with a
mixture of wax and oil. When rifle-companies were
raised in some of the Native regiments, this two-
grooved rifle was served out to them with the
ammunition above described, and no kind of objec-
tion was ever raised to its use.* The grease was
known to be harmless, and the paper of the car-
tridge was never suspected. But, in 1856 , these two-
grooved rifles were condemned, and new Enfield rifles
issued to the Sixtieth, and also to some of the Com-
pany’s European Infantry. The ammunition then,
in the first instance, supplied to them, consisted of
the residue of the greased cartridges sent from Eng-
land for experiment; and whilst these were being
used up, others of the same description, in accord-
ance with orders from England, were being made up
by the Ordnance Departments at Calcutta, at Dum-
Dum, and at Meerut. The mixture of wax and oil,
though it answered the purpose of lubrication at the

* See orders of given at p. 655 Addendum.

MiVNUFACTUllE OF CARTRIDGES.

519

lime of use, was not applicable to bundled cartridges, 3 So/,
because its greasing properties soon disappeai’ed. So
the cartridges manufactured for the Enfield rifles
were to be smeared with a mixture of stearine and
tallow. The Ordnance Department then indented for
tallow, without any specification of the nature of the
animal fat composing it ;* and, although no hog’s-
lard was supplied, there is no question that some beef-
fat was used in the composition of the tallow. This
was, doubtless, an oversight, for it would have been
easy to enter into a contract for the suppl}^ of sheep
and goats’ fat, to which there would not have been
the same objections ; but it would seem that the
Ordnance authorities had before them the fact that
they were making ammunition, primarily for the use
of the Sixtieth Rifles, in accordance with instruc-
tions that had been received from England.

It was true, then, that cartridges smeared with
obnoxious grease had been in course of manufactui'c
both at Fort William and at the Head-Quarters of
Artillery at Meerut. It was true that, in October,

1856, large numbers of balled cartridges had been
sent up the country by steamer for the use of the

♦ It was a part of a contract for
“Petty Stores/’ to be supplied to
the Arsenal of Fort William for two
years, from the 15tli of August,
*1856, entered into by Gungadlmr
Banerjea and Co. The article is
described in the contract as Grease,
Tallow and it was to be supplied
at the rate of two annas (or three-
pence) a pound. From the Records
of the Inspector-General’s office, it
appears tnat after the contract,
dated 16th of August, 1856, was
concluded, Grease and Tallow were
indented for separately at various
times. In an indent on the Con-
tractor, dated September, 1856, the
following entries appear ;

Grease . . ammuniiion pur-

( poses.

Tallow off For greasing compo-

the purest < sitioii for Mini6
kind. . . . rifle ammunition.

Ill subsequent indents the article is
sometimes called “ Grease,’* and
sometimes “ Tallow ” — “ Required
for Arsenal purposes.” A circular
was issued to the Department, dated
January 39th, 1857, directing that,
when applying tallow to articles
which Native soldiers are required
to handle, only the tallow of sheep
or goats is to be employed, that of
smne or cows being most carefully
excluded.

520

OUTBEEAK OF THE MUTINY-

1S57, Musketry Dep6ts at Umballah and Sealkote.* But it
was not true tkat any had been issued to the Sejjoy
regiments ; for the time had not yet come for the
detachments at the Musketry Dep6ts to use any kind
of ammunition. These detachments had received the
Enfield rifle ; but they were merely learning its use ;
learning the construction and the properties of the
new weapon ; learning to take it to pieces and to put
it together again ; learning the mode of taking sight
and aim at different distances — ^processes which occu-
pied many weeks, and delayed the season of target
practice. Meanwhile, the old two-grooved rifles were
in full service with the rifle-companies ; and car-
tridges, as above described, with detached balls
greased with oil and wax, were in constant use for
practice-drill.f To these cartridges the Commander-
in-Chief referred, when he telegraphed to Calcutta
that greased cartridges had been long in use without
exciting any alarm. It was thought at Head-Quarters
that if attention were once called to the matter of the
greased cartridges, every Sepoy who had used the
old “patches” would be filled with alarm.

But whether this surmise were right or whether
it w'ere wrong, it is certain that the minds of the
Sepoys, first in one station, then in another, were al-
ready becoming overwhelmed by the great fear. The
lie had gone a-head of the truth. It is doubtful
whether any orders or proclamations could have ar-

^ The numbers were 22,500 for
the Umballab Depot, and 14,000 for
the Sealkote Depot, sent on the 23rd
of October to Delhi, via Allahabad,
by steamer.

f It may be advantageous to
caution the non-professional reader
against confounding the rifle-com-
panies here spoken of with the de-

tachments at the Rifle Dep6ts. The
former were wath their regiments,
using the old two-grooved muskets ;
the latter were detached from their
regiments, learning the use of the
Enfield rifle in the schools of mus-
ketry at Dum-Dum, Unjballah, and
Sealkote.

CAUSES OF ALARM.

521

rested tlae feeling of alarm, which was rushing, with
the force of an electric current, from cantonment to
cantonment, and turning the hearts of the soldiery
against us. It was plain that a very dangerous de-
lusion had taken possession of them, and it was right
that everything reasonable should have been done
to expel it. But the Sepoys, at a very early stage,
were past all reasoning. It was not grease, animal
grease, alone that disturbed them. Grease of an ob-
noxious kind, for long years, had been applied by
Native hands to the wheels of gun-carriages and
waggons, and not even a murmur of discontent had
been heard. At Calcutta and at Meerut the greased
oartridges had been made up by Natives, and, at the
latter place, even Brahmin boys had been employed
in their manufacture. So it was thought that the
objection might be confined to the biting-off of the
end of the cartridge. It was true that the grease
was applied to the part farthest from that which
touched the lips of the soldier ; but in a hot climate
grease is rapidly absorbed, and there was a not un-
reasonable apprehension that it would insidiously
spread itself from one end to the other of the car-
tridge. So, on the recommendation of Major Bon-
tein, a change was introduced into the system of
Rifle drill, by which the process of pinching off by
the hand was substituted for biting off by the teeth.
This was right, as far as it went; but it could not
go far. The Sepoy was not satisfied. He argued
that he had been accustomed always to bite off the
end of the cartridge, and that the force of this strong
habit would often bring it unwittingly to his lips,
especially in the excitement of active service. There
are times, doubtless, when both the Hindoo and the
Mahomedan have an elastic conscience. But there are

1857.

522

OUTBEEAK OF THE MUTINY.

IS57.

Earraokpore,

February,

1867.

seasons also 'n’lien both are obdurate and unyielding;.
It might have been easy to persuade the Sepoys that
the British Government desired to place the matter
entirely in their own hands, and to leave them to
grease their cartridges and to use them after their
o-wTi fashion ; but too many vague doubts and sus-
picions had been raised in past times, and too much
was being poisonously instilled into them in the pre-
sent, to suffer even a remnant of confidence to cling
to them in this conjuncture. To beat them back at
one point was only to make them take up their
ground more tenaciously at another.

“ We have at Barrackpore,” wrote General Hearscy
in February, “ been dwelling upon a mine ready for
explosion. I have been watching the feeling of the
Sepoys here for some time. Their minds have been
misled by some designing scoundrels, Avho have
managed to make them believe that their religious
prejudices, their caste, is to be interfered with by Go-
vernment — that they are to be ‘forced to become
Christians.’ ” But day after day passed, and though
it was manifest that there was an uneasy feeling in all
the regiments, and especially in the Second and Thirty-
fourth, there were no overt acts of insubordination.
Their commanding officers had explained to them
that Government had no such designs as were im-
puted to them ; but even when the Sepoys were as-
sured that no greased cartridges would ever be issued
to them, and that they might themselves lubricate
their ammunition with wax and oil, so deeply rooted
were the misgivings that had taken possession of their
minds, that they began to suspect that animal grease
had been used in the composition of the cartridge-
paper, and that the English were only abandoning
one trick to fall back upon another. There was a

THE CARTRIDGE-rAPER.

5 ^

glazed surface on the paper, Avhich gave it a greasy
aspect, and favoured the groAvth of the suspicion ; and
when it was burnt, it flared “ with a fizzing noise,
and smelt as if there was grease in it.” So the sus-
picion soon grew into a certainty, and the fears of the
Sepoy waxed stronger and stronger every day.

This was especially apparent in the Second Grena-
diers ; so a Court of Inquiry was held to investigate
the matter. The paper was examined in Court, and
the Sepoys were called upon to state their objections.
This they did, with an obstinate adherence to their
belief that grease had been used in its composition.
When asked how this suspicion could be removed
from their minds, they answered that they could not
remove it — ^that there were no means of removing it,
except by substituting another kind of paper. So
Government resolved to submit the obnoxious paper
to a chemical test, and the Chemical Examiner re-
ported, after due investigation, that it had not been
greased or treated with any greasy or oily matter
during or since its manufacture ; that by operating
on a large quantity of paper he had been able to ex-
tract as much oil as could be discovered by the use of
a higher power of the microscope, but that the grease
was no more than might be contracted from the hands
of the workmen who had packed it.* But there was
little satisfaction even in this, for so obstinate was
the conviction that the English designed to poUuto
the Sepoys, that a belief was gaining ground among
them that the paper was little more than “ bladder.”
The stiffness and transparency of it favoured this
suspicion, and they could not rid themselves of the
impression that it was an animal substance which

* Di*. I^PNamara to the Inspector-General of Ordnance, Feb. 11, 1857.

. Fublished vapm.

j857.

524

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

.57. they were called upon to use. This was a far greater
difficulty than the other, for it afifected not merely
the Eifle Depdts, but the whole Native Army ; and
there was no possibility of grappling with it except
by ceasing altogether from musketry drill. If the
fear had been only a fear of the fat of cows and
swine, it might have been removed by the substitu-
tion of one grease for another ; or if the external
application of any kind of animal grease were ob-
jected to, oil and wax might be employed in its
place ; or if the touching of the unclean thing with
the lips were the grievance, the end of the greased
cartridge might be pinched off by the hand, and that
objection removed. But to this fear of the paper
used in aU the cartridges issued to the Army, gi'eased
or dry, there was practically no antidote that would
not have been both an admission and a concession,
very dangerous for Government to make. It re-
mained only that the English officer should persuade
the Sepoy that he was wrong.

There could hardly, in such a crisis, have been a
better man in command of the Division than General
Hearsey ; for he was one who steered wisely a middle
course between the troubled waters of alarm and the
dead calms of a placid sense of security. He had a
large-hearted sympathy with the Sepoys in their
affliction. He understood them thoroughly. He saw
that they were labouring under a great fear ; and he
Avas not one, in such a case, to think that the “black
fellows” had no right to suspect the designs of their
Avhite masters. He saw clearly Avhat a tremendous
significance, in the eyes both of Mahomedans and
Hindoos, there was in this incident of the greased
cartridges, and he could not wonder at the mingled
feeling of terror and resentment that it had excited

HEAESEY’S FIEST ADDRESS.

52j

It was a case tliat in his opinion required kindly 1S37.
treatment and delicate handling; and he thought that
much might be done by considerate explanations to
restore confidence to their minds. So, on the after-
noon of Monday, the 9th of February, he paraded
the Brigade, and in a loud, manly voice, using good
vernacular Hindostanee, addressed the assembled
regiments. Earnestly and emphatically he explained
to them that they had laid hold of a foolish and a
dangerous delusion; that neither the Government
which they served, nor the officers who commanded
them, had ever thought for a moment of interfering
with their religious usages or depriving them of their
caste ; and that it Avas but an idle absurdity to believe
that they could by any means be forced to be
Chi’istians. He told them “that the English were
Christians of the book — Protestants; that they ad-
mitted no proselytes but those who, being adults,
could read and fully understand the precepts laid
down therein ; that if they came and threw them-
selves down at our feet, imploring to be made Book
Christians, it could not be done ; they could not be
baptised until they had been examined in the truths of
the book, and proved themselves fully conversant with
them, and then they must, of their own good will
and accord, desire to become Christians before they
could be made so.” He then asked them if they un-
derstood him ; they nodded their assent, and it ap-
peared both to the English and to the Native officers
that the Sepoys were well pleased -with what they had
heard, and that a heaviness had passed away from
their minds.*

But the good effect of this address was but tran- March, 18

* General Hearsoy to the Secretaij to GoYemment, Teb. 11, 1S57.

- JPuljlUhed

526

OUTBEEAK OF THE MUTIXT.

1857. sitory ; for when the troops at Barrack pore heard
what had been done by their comrades of the Nine-
teenth, there was great excitement among them, great
anxiety to know the result. It was plain that the
game had commenced in earnest, and thattliey might
soon be called upon to take a part in it. But it
would he well fii’st to see what move would be made
by the Government ; what punishment would be in-
flicted upon the mutinous regiment at Berliamporc.
Days passed, and days grew into weeks, but still the
Government appeared to be inactive. The Nineteenth
were quietly performing their duties, as if nothing
had happened. In the excited imaginations of the
Sepoys there was something ominous in this quietude.

. They dimly apprehended the truth, and the obscurity
of their conceptions caused them marvellously to ex-
aggerate it. They believed that an overwhelming
European force, with Cavalry and Artillery, would
come suddenly upon them and destroy them.*

Their fears were exaggerated; hut they were not
wholly baseless. When the tidings of the mutiny at
Berhampore reached Calcutta, the Governor-General
saw at once that a great danger had been providen-
tially escaped ; but with the sense of present relief
came also a solemn sense of the magnitude of the
crisis. The little doud was growing larger — ^growing
darker. Here was an act of overt mutiny, and from
the very cause of ail the perilous excitement at Bar-
rackpore. The time had now come for the Govern-

* Take in illustration the follow-
ing from the Barrackpore corre-
spondence of the day: **The Drill
Naick of my regiment came to me

two days ago (March 8), and said
the report in the Lines was, that
•there were five tjiousaud Europeans
assembled by the Government at

Howrah— that they had arrived in
two ships, and were to come up here
during the Hoolee (festival)— that,
the men had. not slept the previous
night in consequence of this re-
port /' — Major Matthews to Briga-
dier Grant, — MS. Correspondence,

AKlllVAL or THE EIGEXi'-FOURTII.

527

mcnt to do something to assert its authority, and to 1SE7.
strike terror into the minds of the soldiery. But
what was to bo done ? It was easy to decree the dis-
bandment of the Nineteenth, but it was not easy to
accomplish it. There was but one European regiment H. M.’s 53rd
along the whole line of country from Calcutta to
Dinapore, and one other at the latter place, with a n. M.’s. ID:,;
large extent of country to protect. Only in the prc-
sence of an overawing European force could a thou-
sand armed Sepoys be suddenly consigned to penury
and disgrace, and neither of these regiments could be
moved to Berhampore without dangerously laying
bare other parts of the lower provinces. For a while,
therefore, the stern I’csolution of Government was
shrouded from the guilty regiment. But the punish-
ment was slowly overtaking them, though they knew
it not. A week after the commission of their offence.

Colonel Mitchell had received his orders to bring
down the Nineteenth to Barrackpore to be disbanded,
and the spacious passenger- vessel Bentinch was steam-
ing across the Bay of Bengal, charged with a commis-
sion to bring back with all possible haste the Eighty-
fourth British regiment from Rangoon. The Eng-
lish officers at Barrackpore, even Hearsey himself,
knew nothing of this, and laughed at the credulity
of the Sepoys, who .believed, on the faith of their
own news from Calcutta, that this step had been
taken by the Goveimment. Biit it soon became appa-
rent that the Native soldiery were better informed
than the Division Staff, for on the 20th of March
there was great rejoicing among the English resi-
dents in Calcutta and the neighbourhood at the
thought that t\iQ Bentinch had returned, and that suc-
■ cours had arrived.'

In the. mean while a. state of .sullen quietude ob-Marcii, 1S57

528

OUTBREAK OP THE MUTIOT.

March, 1 S 67 tained at Barrackpore. Still clinging to tlic belief
that the Government, detected in their first design
to apply the grease of cows and pigs to the new
rifle cartridges, had purposely employed those mate-
rials in the manufacture of the cartridge-paper, the
Sepoys went about their work under a prevailing sense
of an impending danger and the aggravation of a
great -svTong.* It is probable that their fears were
stronger than their discontents. They believed that
their lives, and what was dearer to them even than
their lives, were in peril, and they saw no means of
escape except by obtaining the mastery over those
who threatened to bring down such terrible calamitie.s
upon them. To what extent this idea of overpower-
ing the Government had taken possession of the minds
of the soldiery, and how far it was ever shaped into
a definite scheme of action by those who were moved
against us by religious or political animosities, can
only be dimly conjectured. There was a belief ir»
Calcutta that a general rising of the Native troops
had' been fixed for a particular night in March. It
happened that, at this time, the Maharajah Scindiah,
the greatest of the remaining Mahratta Princes, was
on a visit to the English capital. No one then
charged, no one has since charged him, or his sa-
gacious minister, Dinkur Rao, with any complicity
in a plot hostile to the English. They were gratified
by the kind and hospitable reception which had been
extended to them by the Governor-General and all
the chief people of the Presidency, and were pleased
with everything they saw. But it happened that

* So great was tlieir uneasiness, ral court-martial, of wliicli Le was
end so stioug were their suspicious, president, was in close consultation
that it was believed that Colonel with the Governor-General respect-
"Wheler, who at that time went ing the forcible or fraudulent con^
daily into Calcutta to attend a gene- version of the Sepoys,

SCINDUH AT CALCCTTA.

529

the Mahratta Prince invited all the principal English Marcb, 1SS7
gentlemen and ladies in Calcutta to a grand enter-
tainment on the 10th of March. The f§te was to
have been given at the Botanical Gardens on the
opposite bank of the Hooghly river. It is said, that
when the English were thus occupied with the plea-
sure of the moment, and the vigilance of the chief
otficers of Government was temporarily diverted, the
Sepoys, stimulated by the agents of the King of
Oude, were to have risen as one man, to have seized
the Fort and all the chief buildings of Calcutta, and
proclaimed war against the Feringhee. That the
idea of such a rising found entrance into the active
brains of some enemies of the British can hardly be
doubted ; but there is no proof that it ever took
practical shape as an organised conspiracy, which
would have had the result I have indicated if
nothing had occurred to frustrate the plot. But a
circumstance did occur, which some still regard as a
special interposition of Providence for the deliver-
ance of our people. Most unexpectedly, in the dry
season of the year, there was a heavy storm of rain
— one of those mighty tropical down-pourings which
render all out-of-doors recreation wholly an impos-
sibility. So the great entertainment, which the
Maharajah of Gwalior Avas then to have given to
the English society of Calcutta, was postponed to
a more auspicious moment, and the evening of
the 10th of March passed over as quietly as its pre-
decessors.

Of this combination of the Native troops at the
Presidency there Avere, indeed, no visible signs. Out-
Avardly it appeared that only the Second Grenadiers
were implicated in treasonable schemes. “ The Forty-

2 M

530

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINT.

third,” wrote Lord Canning to the Cominander-in-
Chief^ “ have refused to join in a dinner or feast to
which the Second invited them ; and some of the
Seventieth have given up a Jemadar of the Second,
who came into their Lines and tried to persuade the
men not to bite the cartridges when the time for
usinsr them should come, and to deter them from
finishing their huts, saying that there would soon he
a great stir at Barrackpore, and that their huts would
be burnt down.”* Another sign of this apparent
isolation of the Second Grenadiers was afforded by
an incident that occurred in Calcutta. The Native
Guards for the Fort and for the public buildings in the
city were furnished by the regiments at Barrackpoi’o.
On the evening of the 10th of March a detachment
of the Second was in the Fort, and a Soubahdar’s
guard from the Thirty-fourth was posted over the
Calcutta Mint. In the course of the evening, two
Sepoys from the Second presented themselves at the
guard-house and sought out the Soubahdar. lie was
reading an order book by the light of a lamp when
the men appeared before him. One of them then re-
presented that they had come from the Fort ; that the
Calcutta Militia were to join the Fort-Guards at mid-
night; that the Governor-General -was going up to
Barrackpore with all the Artillery from Dum-Dum ;
and that if the Soubahdar would march his guard
into the Fort and join their comrades there, they
might rise successfully against the Government.f

♦March 15, 1857. — MS, Corre- merits had agreed that there was uo
spondence. The Second and Eorty- harm in their men dining together,
■chird had served together at Can- The refusal of the Fortj-thil'd was
d.anar, and were old friends. The not intelligihle to them,
proposed dinner was to be given f Lord Canning to General Anson,

during the Hooley festival, and the March 12, 1857. — MS. Cortesjpond-
oMcers commanding the two regi- ence.

CONSULTATIONS AT CALCUTTA.

531

This last was rather implied than expressed ; but the March, 1S57.
meaning of the men was sufficiently clear; so the
Soubahdar ordered them to be arrested. Next morn-
ing he sent them prisoners into Fort William ; and,
a few days afterwards, they were tried by a Native
Court-martial, found guilty, and sentenced to impri-
sonment for fourteen years.

This was a significant incident, but it was one, also,
which might be turned to some account ; so Hearsey
determined not to lose the opportunity. His former
speech to the Barrackpore troops had not accom-
plished all that was desired ; but it had at least been
partially successful, and he believed that something
might now be done by another address to the Brigade.

So he suggested to the Governor-General the ex-
pediency of such a course. On tire 14th of March
they talked the matter over at Government House,
and Lord Canning assented to the proposal But
before the day had worn out, some misgivings assailed
him, as to whether the General might not he .carried
away, by the strength of his feelings and the fluency
of his speech, to say a little too much ; so after Hear-
sey had returned to Barrackpore, Lord Canning sent
a letter after him, recapitulating the results of the
morning conversation, “ in order to prevent all mis-
takes.” This letter reached Hearsey soon after sun-
rise on the following morning (it was Sunday), and he
at once replied to it, promising to take the greatest
care not to exceed his instructions. On the next day
the Native officers, who had been warned as members
of the Court-martial ordered to assemble for the trial
of the Sepoys of the Second, were to leave Barrack-
pore for Calcutta ; and the General thought it ad-,
visable not to address the Brigade until after their de-

2 M 2

532

ODTBEEAK OE THE MUTINY,

Marcli, 1857. parture.* So the order went forth for a general
parade of the troops at Barrackpore on the morning
of Tuesday, the 17th of March.

There was no little tact requisite, in such a con-
juncture, for the exact apportionment of the several
parts of the speech that was to be delivered. The
main object of it was to warn the troops against de-
signing persons, who were endeavouring to seduce
them from their allegiance ; but it was desirable, also,
to endeavour to pacify and reassure them, for it was
plain that they were overridden by a great terror, born
of the belief that the Government had sent for Euro-
pean troops of all arms with the intent of exterminating
the Brigade. In order thus fo remove the dangerous
delusion which had taken possession of them, it was
necessary to speak of the designs of the Government
towards the mutinous Nineteenth — ^to show that retri-
bution was sure to overtake aU whose guilt had been
proved, but that there was no thought of harming
those who had committed no overt acts of rebellion.
But it was not easy in such a case to avoid saying
either too much or too little, “ I am afraid,” wrote
Lord Canning to the General, “ that, however brief
your observations on that regiment (and they should,
I think, be very brief), you will find it a nice matter
to steer between exciting undue alarm and raising
hopes which may be disappointed. But I feel sure
that you will master the difficulty, and I leave the
task in your hands with perfect confidence of the re-

♦ “I cannot address tlie Brigade Grenadiers must go from lienee be-
until Tuesday morning, as the Native fore I do so. If they heard my ad-
commissioned officers, who are to be dress to the men on parade, it might
members of the General Court-mar- bias tliem in their judgment.”—
tial to be (M^vened at Calcutta for ral Hearse^ to Lord Canning^ March
the trial the Second 15, 1857. — Mid, CorrcBj^ondence*

HEARSEY’S SECOND ADDRESS.

533

suit.”* He was thinking mainly of the elFect to be Marcli, 1857.
produced upon the minds of the Sepoys of the Nine-
teenth. He did not wish that the decision of Govern-
ment should be announced before the time of carrying
it into effect ; but Hearsey saw plainly that it was
better for the general pacification of the Brigade that
the haze through which the intentions of Government
appeared to the ■ soldiery in such exaggerated dimen-
sions should be dispersed. “ For if the men of this
Brigade,” he wrote to Lord Canning, “ know before-
hand what is to take place, their minds will be made
easy, and they will be disabused of the false rumours
now spread about that it is the intention of the Go-
vernment to attack and destroy them by European
troops and Artillery.”!

It was truly a great thing, at that time, to remove
from the minds of the Barrackpore regiments the
great terror that held possession of them ; but the
Nineteenth had not then commenced its march from
Berhampore, and it is always a hazardous operation
to move a regiment, with sentence of disbandment
proclaimed against it, to the place of execution. These
considerations pressed heavily on Hearsey’s mind,
when, on the morning of the 17th of March, he rode
out to the parade-ground, and saw the Brigade drawn
up before him. There was much, however, when he
prepared to address them, of which there could be no
doubt. Most of aU was it necessary to warn them of
the evil-minded and designing men Avho were leading
them astray ; so he began by telling them to beware
of such men, who were endeavouring to take the

* Lord Canniii" to General Hear- f General Hearsey to Lord Cau-
sey, Marcli 14, 1857. — MS. Com- ning, Marcli 15, 1857.— ifiSl Q>rra^
tpondence, s^ondence.

534

OUTBREAK OE THE MUTHSTT.

March. 1857. bread from tbe months of good Sepoys by mabing
them tbe instraments of tbeir schemes of sedition ;
then he spoke of the discontent still prevailing among
them with respect to the cartridge-paper, in which
they had never eeased to believe that animal fat had
been used. Then he began to explain to them, and
wisely, too, as he would explain to children, that the
glazed appearance of the pasper was produced by the
starch employed in its composition, and that the very
best paper used by the Princes of the land had the
same smooth surface and shiny appearance. In
proof of this, he produced, from a bag of golden
tissue, a letter he had received, whilst serving in the
Punjab, from the Maharajah Gholab Sing of Cash-
mere, and, giving it to- the Native officers, told them
to open it and to show it to their men, that they
might see that it was even more glossy than the
paper which they suspected. Having done this, he
asked them if they thought that a Dogra Brahmin or
Rajpoot, ever zealous in the protection of kine, would
use paper made as they suspected, and, after further
illustrations of the absurdity of their suspicions, told
them, that if they did not then believe him, they
should go to Serhampore and see the paper made for
themselves. Then approaching the more dangerous
subject of the Nineteenth, who had been led into
open mutiny by a belief in the falsehood of the defiled
paper, he said that the investigation of their conduct
had been laid before him as General of the Division,
and that he had forwarded it to Government, who
were exceedingly angiy-, and would, in his opinion,
order him to disband the regiment. That if he re-
ceived orders to that effect, all the troops within two
marches of the place — Infantry, Cavalry, and Ar-
tillery, European and Native — would be assembled

hearsey’s second address.

585

at Barrackporc to witness tlie disbandment, and that Match, iss?.
“ the ceremony of striking the name and number of
the regiment from the list of the Army would be
carried out in exactly the same manner as the old
Thirty-fourth Regiment were disbanded at Meerut.”

“ I inform you of this beforehand,” added the Ge-
neral, “because your enemies are trying to make
you believe that European troops Avith Cavalry and
Artillery will be sent here suddenly to attack you ;
these, and such lies, are fabricated and rumoured
amongst you to cause trouble. But no European or
other troops will come to Barrackpore without my
orders, and I will give you all timely intelligence of
their coming.” Then he told them that nothing had
been proved against them, and that therefore they
had nothing to fear ; that aU their complaints would
be listened to by their officers ; that their caste and
religious prejudices were safe under his protection,
and that any one who attempted to interfere with
them would meet with the severest punishment.

Having thus concluded, Hearsey deployed the
Brigade, opened out the ranks to double distance,
and rode through them, stopping to notice the men
who wore medals on their breasts, and asking them,
with kindly interest, for what special services they
had been rewarded. The regiments were then dis-
missed, and went quietly to their Lines, pondering all
that they heard from their General. Wliat they had
heard was, perhaps, a little more than the Governor-
General had intended them to hear ; and Lord Can-
ninsr, though he much admired and much trusted
the fine old officer, had not been wholly free from
alarm lest Hearsey should be carried away by his
feelings, and ^ve vent to more than he had authority
for declaring. But, he added, “it will be nothing

536

OUTBREAK. OF THE MUTINY.

Maicli, 1857. Tcry mischievous even if he should do so.” And he
was right. Hearsey had intimated that Government
would disband the Nineteenth, and in this he ex-
ceeded his instructions. But it is not certain that
the Governor-General lamented the excess. He re-
garded the disbandment of the Nineteenth as a ne-
cessary, but “ an odious business and, perhaps, in
his inmost heart he was not sorry that he had thus
escaped the painful, and to a generous mind the
humiliating alternative of concealing from the regi-
ment the doom in store for it, until he was strong
enough to execute the sentence.* Indeed, he wrote
to the Commander-in-Chief, saying, “ The Nineteenth
are marching down steadily, and will reach Barrack-
pore on the morning of the 31st. They do not know
for certain that disbandment is to be their punish-
ment, and, upon the whole, I think it was better not
to tell them. But I admit that there were two sides
to that question.” The safer course on one side, and
the manlier course on the other ; and between these
two the ruler and the man might well have oscillated.
That tliere was danger in the knowledge, is not to be
doubted. Hearsey had sought, by the partial revela-
tions that he had made, to soothe the troubled spirit
of the Barrackpore Brigade; but it soon became
doubtful whether the knowledge they had gained
would not excite within them more dangerous feel-
ings than those which he had endeavoured to allay.
“ The regiments at Barrackpore, however, know it,”
wrote Lord Canning, “or, at least, fully expect it,
and to-day it is confidently said in the Bazaars that
the Second Grenadiers and the Thirty-fourth intend
to protect the Nineteenth, and to join them in resist-

* Compare Book TL, page 297 d seq.; Considerations on the sutject of
disbandment.

SPREAD OF ALARM,

537

ing. This is leading to alarms and suggestions onMarcli, i.S57.
all sides. Colonel Abbott, of Ishapore, advises the
putting a gag upon the Native Press for a time.

Major Bontein recommends bringing the Nineteenth
to Calcutta instead of Barrackpore, and dealing with
them under the guns of the Fort., where they will have
no sympathisers within reach. Even Atkinson sug-
gests that Dum-Dum would be better than Barrack-
pore. I am not in any w'ay moved from my first
intention, and nothing but the opinion of General
Hearsey, who has to execute the orders, that a change
of plan or place should be made, would dispose me to
do so. I do not think that he will give any such
opinion, and I hope that he will not.”

No such opinion was given; but it was plain to
Ilearsey, as the month of March wore to a close, that
the hopes which he had once entertained of the
speedy subsidence of the alarm which had taken
possession of the Sepoys -were doomed to be disap-
pointed. For when the troops at Barrackpore knew
that the Nineteenth were to be disbanded, and that
an English regiment had been brought across the
black water to execute the punishment, they be-
lieved, more firmly than they had believed at the
beginning of the month, that other white regiments
were coming, and that the Government would force
them to use the obnoxious cartridges, or treat them
like their comrades that were marching down from
Berhampore to be disgraced. So the great terror
that was driving them into rebellion grew stronger
and stronger, and as from mouth to mouth passed
the significant words, “ Gora-logue aya” — “ the Eu-
ropeans have come” — their excited imaginations be-
held vessel after vessel pouring forth its legions of
English fighting-men, under a foregone design to

538

OUTBREAK OF THE MUIIXT.

Mftfch, 1857. force them all to apostatise at the point of the
bayonet.

Mitchell had started with his doomed corps on the
20th of March, and was expected to reach Barrack-
pore at the end of the month. The behaviour of the
men of the Nineteenth, ever since the outburst that
had irretrievably committed them, had been orderly
and respectful, and they were marching steadily down
to the Presidency, obedient to their English officers.
On the 30th, they were at Barasut, eight miles from
Barrackpore, awaiting the orders of Government,
when news reached Mitchell to the effect that the
troops at the latter station were in a fever of excite-
ment, and that on the day before an officer had been
cut down on parade.

T e story The Story was too true. On the 29th of March —

of^Mungul ^ Sunday afternoon — there was more than

common excitement in the Lines of the Thirty-fourth,
for it was said that the Europeans had arrived. Fifty
men of the Fifty-third had come by Avater from Cal-
cutta, and Avere disembarking at the river-side. The
apprehensions of the Sepoys exaggerated this arrival,
and it Avas believed that the cantonment Avould soon
be SAvarming with English soldiers. On one man
especially this impression had fixed itself so strongly,
that, inflamed as he was by hang^ Avhich is to the
Sepoy Avhat strong drink is to the European soldier,
he was no longer master of himself. He was a young
man, named Mungul Pandy, a man of good cha-
racter, but of an excitable disposition, and seemingly
Avith sonle religious enthusiasm wrought upon by the
story of the greased cartridges. He had heard of the
arrival of the detachment of Europeans, and he be-
lieved that the -dreaded hour had come; that the
caste of the Sepoys was about to be destroyed. So,

THE STORY OF MUNGUL PAXDY.

539

pitting on his accoutrements and seizing his mushet, March, 1857
he went out from his hut, and, calling upon his com-
rades to follow him, if they did not wish to bite the
cartridges and become infidels, he took post in front
of the Quarter-Guard, and oi’dered a bugler to sound
the assembly. The order was not obeyed ; but, Avith
an insolent and threatening manner, Mungul Pandy
continued to stride up and down, and when the
European sergeant-major Avent out, fired his piece at
him, and missed.

All this time the Native officer and men of the
Thirty-fourth on duty at the Quarter-Guard saAv
Avhat was going on, but did not move to arrest the
drugged fanatic who was so plainly bent upon mis-
chief. But hastening to the Adjutant’s house, a
Native corporal reported Avhat had occurred, and
Lieutenant Baugh, without a moment of unnecessary
delay, buckled on his sword, loaded his pistols,
mounted his horse, and galloped down to the Quarter-
Guard. He had just tightened rein, when Mungul
Pandy, hidden by the station gun in front of the
Guiird, took aim and fired at the Adjutant; but,
missing him, wounded his charger, and brought both
horse and rider to the ground. Baugh then, dis-
entangling himself, took one of his pistols from the
holsters and fired at the Sepoy. The shot did not
take effect, so he drew his sword and closed with
the man, who also had draAvn his tulwar, and then
there Avas a sharp hand-to-hand conflict, in which
the odds were against the Sepoy, for the sergeant-
major came up and took part in the affray. But
Mungul Pandy Avas a desperate man, and the strokes
of his tulwar fell heaAuly upon his assailants; and
he might, perhaps, have despatched them both, if a
Mahomedan Sepoy, of the Grenadier Company, named

540

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINT.

arcli, 1837. Sheikh Pultoo, had not seized the mutineer and
averted his blows.

All this passed at the distance of a few yards only
from the Quarter-Guard of the Thirty-fourth, where
a J emadar and twenty men were on duty. The sound
of the firing had brought many others from the Lines,
and Sepoys in uniform and out of uniform crowded
around, in a state of tumultuous excitement. But with
the exception of this Sheikh Pultoo, no man moved
to assist his officer; no man moved to arrest the
criminal. Nor was their guilt only the guilt of
inaction. Some of the Sepoys of the Guard struck
the wounded officers on the ground with the butt-
ends of their muskets, and one fired his piece at
them ; and when Sheikh Pultoo called upon them to
arrest the mutineer, they abused him, and said that if
he did not release Mungul Pandy, they would shoot
him. But he held the desperate fanatic until Baugli
and the sergeant-major had escaped, and doubtless to
his fidelity they owed their lives.

Meanwhile, tidings of the tumult had reached the
quarters of General Hearsey. An orderly rushed into
the portico of his house and told him that the Brigade
had risen. His two sons, officers of the Sepoy Army,
were with him ; and now the three, having ordered
their horses to be saddled and brought round, put on
their uniform and accoutrements and prepared at once
to proceed to the scene of action. It seemed so pro-
bable that all the regiments had turned out in a
frenzy of alarm, that, whilst the horses were being
saddled, Hearsey wrote hasty notes, to be despatched
in case of need to the officers commanding the Euro-
peans at Chinsurah and Dum-Dum, calling upon
them to march down at once to his assistance. He
had just sealed them, when first the Adjutant of the

THE SCENE AT THE QUAETEE-GUAIID.

541

Forty-third, smeared with the blood of the wounded March, 1857 .

officers, and then the Commandant of the Eegiment,

came up to repoi’t, in detail, what had happened. The

story then told him was a strange one ; for it seemed

not that the Brigade, but that a single Sepoy had

risen, and was setting the State at defiance. It is

hard to say whether the surprise or the indignation

of the gallant veteran were greater, when he asked

whether there was no one to shoot or to secure the

madman. But it was plain that no time was to be

lost. So, mounting their horses, Hearsey and his

sons galloped down to the parade-ground, and saw

for themselves what was passing.

There was a great crowd of Sepoys, mostly unarmed
and undressed, and there were several European
officers, some mounted and some on foot ; much con-‘
fusion and some consternation, but apparently no
action. Mungul Pandy, still master of the situation,
was pacing up and down, in front of the Quarter-
Guard, calling upon his comrades in vehement tones,
and with excited action, to follow his example, as the
Europeans were coming down upon them, and to die
bravely for their religion. But the crowd of Sepoys,
though none remembered at that moment that they
were servants of the State, none came forward to
support discipline and authority, were not ripe for
open mutiny ; and when Mungul Pandy reviled them
as cowards, who had first excited and then deserted
liim, they hung irresolutely back, clustering together
like sheep, and wondering what would happen next.

The arrival of the General solved the question. As
soon as he saw Mungul Pandy in front of the Quarter-
Guard, he rode towards it^ accompanied by his sons
and by his Division-Staff, Major Eoss, and when an
officer cried out to him to take care, as the mutineer’s

542

OUTBEEAK OF TIIE MUTINY.

Uarcli, 1857. musket -was loaded, answered, “ Damn his muskel,”
and rode on to do his duty.

Little inclination was there on the part of tlie
Jemadar and the men of the Guard to obey the
General’s orders ; but the manner of Hearsey at that
moment was the manner of a man not to be denied ;
and supported by his sons, each of the gallant Three
with his hand upon his revolver, there was instant
death in disobedience. So the Jemadar and the
Guard, thus overawed, followed Hearsay and his sons
to the place where Mungul Pandy was striding about
menacingly with his musket in his hand. As they
approached the mutineer, John Hearsey cried out,
“ Father, he is taking aim at you.” “ If I fall, John,”
said the General, “rush upon him and put him to
death.” But Mungul Pandy did not fire upon
Hearsey ; he turned his weapon upon himself. He
saw that the game was up ; and so, placing the butt
of his musket on the ground, and the muzzle of the
piece to his breast, he discharged it by the pressure of
his foot, and fell burnt and wounded to the ground.

As he lay there convulsed and shivering, with his
blood-stained sword beneath him, the officers thought
that he was dying. But medical assistance came
promptly, the wound was examined and found to be
only superficial, so the wounded man was carried to
the Hospital; and then Hearsey rode among the
Sepoys, telling them, as he had often told them
before, that their alarms were groundless, that the
Government had no thought of interfering with their
religion, and that he saw mth regret how lamentably
they had failed in their duty, in not arresting or
shooting down a man who had thus shown himself to
be a rebel and a murderer. They answered that
he was a madman, intoxicated to frenzy by bang.

THE NINETEEXXII.

543

“ Aad if so,” said Hearsey, “why not have shot him March, 1S5?.
do'wn as you would have shot a mad elephant or a
mad dog, if he resisted you.” Some answered that he
had a loaded musket. “ What !” replied the Greneral,

“are you afraid of a loaded musket?” They were
silent; and he dismissed them with scorn. It was
I)lain that they had ceased to be soldiers.

Hearsey returned to his quarters that Sabbath
evening, heavy with thought of the work before him.

He had received his orders to execute the sentence
that had been passed on the Nineteenth Regiment.

That sentence had now been publicly proclaimed in
general order to the whole Army. On Tuesday morn-
ing, in the presence of aU the troops, European and
Native, at the Presidency, the Berhampore mutineers
were to be turned adrift on the world, destitute and
degraded ; and it was not to be doubted that they
would carry with them the sympathies of their
comrades in all parts of the country. That there was
prospective danger in this was certain, for every dis-
banded Sepoy might have become an emissary of
evil ; but there was a great and present danger, far
too formidable in itself to suffer thoughts of the future
to prevail ; for it was probable that the Nineteenth
would resist their sentence, and that aU the Native
troops at the Presidency would aid them in their re-
sistance. Some thought that the Barrackpore Brigade
would anticipate the event, and that on Monday there
would be a general rising of the Sepoys, and that the
officers and their families would be butchered by the
mutineers. The first blood had been shed. Mungul
Paudy was only the fugleman. So many of the
English ladies in Barrackpore left the cantonment
and sought safety for a whfie in Calcutta. But there
was no place at that time more secure than that

544

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

Maroii, 1857. v;liicli they had quitted; and they found that the
inmates of the asylum they had sought "were as much
alarmed as themselves.

It has been said that, halted at Barasut on the
30th of March, the Nineteenth learnt what had
happened on the preceding evening. The Thirty-
fourth had sent out their emissaries to meet their old
friends and comrades of Lucknow, to prompt them
to resistance, and to promise to cast in their own lot
with their brethren and to die for their religion. And
this, too, it is said, with murderous suggestions of a
general massacre of the white officers. But the Nine-
teenth shook their heads at the tempters. They had
expressed their sorrow for what had happened, and
they had implored that they might be suffered to
prove their loyalty by going on service to any part of
the world. They had never at heart been mutinous,
and they would not now rise against the Government
whose salt they had eaten and whose uniform they
had worn. But the bonds of a great sympathy re-
strained them from denouncing their comrades, so
they suffered in silence the tempters to return to
their own Lines.

March SI, As the moming dawned upon them, obedient to
1857. orders, they commenced the last march that they were
Bisband- ^’'^cr to make as soldiers. Heavy-hearted, penitent,
K^etceath remains of a great fear stiU clinging to

them, they went to their doom. A mile from Barrack-
pore, Hearsey met them with his final orders, and
placing himself in front of the column, rode back with
them to the parade-ground which was to be the scene
of their disbandment. There all the available troops
in the Presidency division, European and Native,
tvere drawn up to receive them. Steadily they
marched on to the ground which had been marked

DISBiNDMENT OF THE NINETEENTH. 545

out for them, and found themselves face to face "with Marcli, 18S7.
the guns. If there had been any thought of resistance,
it would have passed away at the first sight of that
imposing array of white troops and the two field-
batteries which confronted them. But they had never
thought of anything but submission. Obedient, there-
fore, to the word of command, up to the last moment
of their military existence, they listened in silence to
the General’s brief preliminary address, in silence to
the General Order of Government announcing the
sentence of disbandment ; without a murmur, opened
their ranks, piled their arms at the word of command
as though they had been on a common parade, and
then hung their belts upon their bayonets. The
colours of the regiment were then brought to the
front, and laid upon a rest composed of a little pile of
crossed muskets. It was an anxious moment, for
though the Nineteenth were penitent and submissive,
the temper of some of the other regiments, and espe-
cially of the Thirty-fourth, was not to be trusted;
and for a while it was believed that the men, who two
days before had thrown off the mask, were prepared
to fire upon their officers. The rumour ran that
many of the Sepoys of that guilty regiment were on
parade with loaded muskets, and Hearsey was advised
to prove them by ordering, the regiment to spring
ramrods. But he wisely rejected the advice, saying
that all was going well, and that he would not mar
the effect of the peaceable disbandment of the re^-
ment by a movement that might excite a collision.

He was right. The work that he had in hand was
quietly completed. The men of the Nineteenth were
marched to a distance from their arms, and the pay
that was due to them brought out for disbursement.

They had now ceased to be soldiers : but there was. nc

2 N

OTJTBKEAR OF THE MDTINT,

Marcli, 1857. furtlier degradation in store for them. Hearsey ad-
dressed them in tones of kindness, saying that though
the Government had decreed their summary dismissal,
their uniforms would not he stripped from their hacks,
and that as a reward for their penitence and good
conduct on the march from Berhampore, they would
he provided at the public cost with carriage to convey
them to their homes. This kindness made a deep im-
pression upon them. Many of them lifted up their
voices, bewailing their fate and loudly declaring that
they would revenge themselves upon the Thirty-fourth,
who had tempted them to their undoing. One man,
apparently spokesman for his comrades, said, “ Give
us back our arms for ten minutes before we go ; and
leave us alone with the Thirty-fourth to settle our
account with them.”*

.Whilst the men of what had once been the Nine-
teenth were being paid, Hearsey addressed the other
Native regiments on parade, very much as he had ad-
dressed them before; but urging upon them the con-
sideration of the fact that the Niueteenth, in which
there were four hundred Brahmins and a hundred
and fifty Kajpoots, had been sent to their homes, and
were at liberty to visit what shrines they pleased, and
to worship where their fathers had worshipped before
them, as a proof that the report which had been

Lord Canning’s reasons for
sparing them the deeper degradation
gre thus given in a letter to General
Anson; sent you a copy of tlie
General .Order yesterday. I have
detemined to omit tlie words which
re^ttire' that the men shall be de-
prive^d / of the uniform which they
have dishonoured.’ Heavy .as has
been, their crime — ^none heavier — it
is not a mean or Elbject one ; such as
refusing to m^ch to a post of
danger ;.,and. the: substance of their

punishment is severe enough with-
out being made to gall and rankle.
It was for this reason that I did not
originally prescribe that the number
of the regiment should be removed
from the Army List, or that tlie men
should be turned out of cantonment
ignominiously, as was done' in the
case of the Thirty-fourth thirteen
years - ago. The abstaining from
stripping their uniforms from them
win be further relaxation' in the
same spirit.” — MS, Correspondence, „

DISPEESION OF THE NINETEEKTH.

547

circulated of the intention of Government to interfere Marcli, 1857.
with their reli^on was nothing but a base falsehood.

The men listened attentively to what was said ; .and
when the time came for their dismissal, they went
quietly to their lines. It was nearly nine o’clock
before the men of the old Nineteenth had been paid
up; and, under an European escort, were marched
out of Barrackpore. As they moved off, they cheered
the fine old soldier, whose duty it had been to dis-
band them, and wished him a long and a happy life ;
and he went to his house with a heart stirred to its,
very depths with a compassionate sorrow, feeling
doubtless that it was the saddest morning’s work he
had ever done, but thanking God that it had been
done so peacefully and with such perfect success.

548

OCTBEEAK OF THE MUTINT..

CHAPTER VI.

THE MONTH OP APRIL — PROGRESS OP ALARM— THE PANIC AT UMBALLAH—
GENERAL ANSON ADDRESS — EVENTS AT MEERDT — THE BONE-DUST
PLOTJR— THE STORY OP THE CHUPATIIES— INTRIGUES OP THE NANA SAHEB
— APPAIRS AT LUCKNOW,

Barrackpore. Nqt less thankful was Lord Canning, when tidings
April, 185 . brought to him at Calcutta that all had passed
off quietly at Barrackpore. He had sent one of his
Aides-de-camp, Captain Baring, to witness the dis-
bandment of the Nineteenth, and to bring back to
him, with all possible despatch, intelligence of the
events of the morning. And now that good news
had come, he telegraphed it at once to the Com-
mander-in-Chief, and made it known throughout the
city, to the intense relief of many frightened resi-
dents, who had anticipated a general rising of the
Native troops, and the massacre of all the European
inhabitants. For the moment, at least, the danger
had passed; and a little breathing-time was per-
mitted to Government. Now that the disbandment
of the Nineteenth had been effected, and the men
were going quietly to their homes, there was leisure
to think of the far greater crime of the Thirty-fourth.
The case of Mungul Pandy, who had cut down his
officer, was one to raise no questionings. Nor, indeed,
could there be much doubt about the Jemadar of the

“.THE THIETT-FOUETH.

54 ?

Guard, who had suffered such an outrage 'to he dom- April, 1857.
mitted before his eyes. The former was tried by
Court-martial on the 6th of April, and sentenced to
be hanged; and, on the 10th and 11th, the latter
was tried, acd sentenced to the same ignominious
death. On the 8th, Mungul Pandy paid the penalty
of his crime on the gallows, in the presence of aU the
troops, at Barrackpore. But although without loss of
time the Jemadar was condemned to be hanged, the
execution lagged behind the sentence in a manner
that must have greatly marred the effect of the ex-
ample. A legal difficulty arose, which, for a while,
held retribution in restraint,* and the men of the
Brigade began to think that Government lacked
the resolution to inflict condign punishment on the
offender.

Nor was this the only apparent symptom of irreso-
lution. The Thirty-fourth had been more guilty than
the Nineteenth ; but punishment had not overtaken
it. The men stiH went about with their arms in
their hands ; and there was scarcely a European in
Barrackpore who believed that he was , safe from
their violence. As officers returned at night from
their regimental messes, they thought that their own
Sepoys would fall upon them in the darkness, and
social intercourse after nightfall between the ladies

^ “The execution of a Native offi- The delay was caused by the Com-
cer of his rank,” wrote Lord Canning raander- in- Chief not having given
to the President of the Board of authority to General Hearsey, in
Control, “ convicted by his brother his warrant, to mry ou t s^iTitencfs
officers, will have a most wholesome against any but non-commissioned
effect. Such a thing is quite unpre- officers, and by an opinion utterly
cedented. There has been a delay erroneous of tlie Judge Advocate,
between the sentence and the exe- who is with the Comraander-in-ChieF,
cution which has vexed me, as it that the authority could not be given,
may give au appearance of hesitation Hence nearly a week was lost, and
to the proceedings Of Government, with it something of the sharpness
which would be mischievous, and of the example.”-— i/iy. Correspond-
which never has existed for a moment, edce of Lord Gaming^

550

OTJTBUEAi: 01 THE MUTDJT.

April, 1857. of tte station was suspended.* All tliis was known
and deplored ; but it was felt, upon the other hand,
that if there were evil in delay, there was evil also in
any appearance of haste.f Mindful that the dis-
affection in the Sepoy regiments had its root in fear,
and believing that any undue severity would in-
crease their irritation, the Governor-General caused
aU the circumstances of the excitement of the Thirty-
fourth to be sifted to the bottom, and hoped thereby
to elicit information which might guide him to a
right understanding of the matter. The regiment
once disbanded, there would be no hope of further
^ revelations. So aH through the month of April their
doom was unpronounced. Courts of Inquiry were
being held for the purpose of ascertaining the general
temper of the regiment. It appeared that for some
time there had been a want of loyalty and good feel-
ing in the Thirty-fourth; that Native officers and
Sepoys had been disrespectful in their manner to-
wards their English officers ; and altogether there had
been such a lack of discipline, that the officers, when
questioned, said that if the regiment had been or-

* It does not appear tliat any out-
rages were aetuallj conmiitted ; but
one uiglit a Sepoy appeared sud-
denly in a threatening attitude be-
fore a young officer, as lie was on
his way home, upon which, being a
stalwart and brave fellow, the Eng-
lish subaltern knocked him down.

f A little later the Governor-Gene-
ral wrote: “The mutinous spirit is
not quelled here, and I feel no con-
fidence of being able to eradicate it
very speedily, although the outbreaks
may be repressed easily. The spirit
of disaffection, or rather of mistrust,
for it is more that, has spread fur-
ther than I thought six weeks ago,
l3ut widely rather than deeply, and
it requires very wary walking. A

hasty measure of retrihution, betray-
ing animosity, or an unjust act of
severity, would confirm, instead of
allaying, the temper which is abroad.
Jt is not possible to say with confi-
dence what the causes are ; but with
the common herd there is a sincere
fear for their caste, and a conviction
that this has been in danger from
the cartridges and other causes. This
feeling is played upon by others from
outside, and, to some extent, with
political objects. But, upon the
whole, political animosity does not
go for much in the present move-
ment, and certainly does not actuate
the Sepqys in the mass.’’— Can-
ning to Lord LlgUnstone^ May 6,
1867.— if/Sl CorresyondeMe*

THE THIETY-FODETH.

551

dered on seryice they -would have had little faith in April, 1857
the fidelity of the great bulk of the soldiery. And at
last an opinion was recorded to the effect that “ the
Sikhs and Mussulmans of the Thirty-fourth Regi-
ment of Native Infantry were trustworthy soldiers of
the State, but that the Hindoos generally of that
corps were not to be trusted.” So the Government
took into deliberate consideration the disbandment of
the regiment, -with the exception of those officers and
soldiers who had been absent from Barrackpore at
the time of the outrage of the 29th of March, or who
had at any time made practical demonstration of
their loyalty and fidelity to the State.*

But before judgment was pronounced and sen-
tence executed, there had been much in other parts
of the country to disturb the mind of the Governor-
General. He was a man of a hopeful nature, and
a courageous heart that never suffered him to exag-
gerate the dangers of the Future, or to look gloomily
at the situation of the Present ; but it was plain that
the little cloud which had arisen at the end of
January, was now, in the early part of April, rapidly
spreading itself over the entire firmament Already
the sound of the thunder had been heard from dis-
tant stations beneath the shadow of the Himalayahs,

Three companies of the Thirty- must he regarded as an additional
fourth li ad been on detachment duty proof of the external agency that
at Chittagong. No suspicion of dis- was, I believe, at the beginning of
loyalty had attached to them, and 1857, employed to corrupt the Se-
vi'hen they heard of what had passed poys at the Presidency. It is a cir-
at Barrackpore, they sent in a memo- cumstance also to be noticed, that the
rial, saying that they had heard with very Soubahdar of the Mint-Guard,
extreme regret of the disgraceful ^vho had arrested the Sepoys of the
conduct of Muiigul Pandy and the Second Grenadiers, was accused, in
Guard 5 that they well knew that the course of the inquiry into the
the Government would not iuterfere conduct and temper of tne Thirty-
with their religion; and that th^^ fourth, of being a prime mover of
would remain faithful for ever.” If sedition,
they were sincere, their sincerity

552

OUTBREAK OF THE MDTINT.

Apjil, 1857. and it was little likely that, throughout the interven-
ing country, there was a single cantonment by which
the alarm had not been caught — a single Native regi-
ment in which the new rifle and the greased car-
tridges were not subjects of excited discussion.
Retrospect of The Head-quarters of the Army were at that time
Umbaiiah ^^t^^llah, at the foot of the great hills, a thou-
Miirch, 1867. sand miles from Calcutta. There General Anson
having returned from his hasty visit to Calcutta, was
meditating a speedy retreat to Simlah, when the un-
quiet spirit in the Native regiments forced itself
upon his attention. This station was one of the
Dep6ts of Instruction, at which the use of the new
rifle was taught to representative men from the dif-
ferent regiments in that part of the country. These
men were picked soldiers, of more than common
aptitude and intelligence, under some of the best
Native oflicers in the service. The explanations of
their instructors seemed to have disarmed their sus-
picions, and they attended their instruction parades
without any sign of dissatisfaction. They had not
advanced so far in their drill as to require to use the
cartridges; and, indeed, the new ammunition had
not yet been received from Meerut. But the Com-
mander-in-Chief believed that the men were satis-
fied, until a circumstance occurred which loudly pro-
claimed, and ought to have struck home to him the
conviction, that the great fear which had taken pos-
session of men’s minds was too deeply seated to be
eradicated by any single measure of the Government,
and too widely spread to be removed by any local
orders. What solace was there in the assurance that
no cartridges lubricated with the obnoxious grease
had been, or ever would be, issued to them, if the
cartridge-paper used by them were unclean? and

ALARM AT UMBALLAH.

553

even if their own minds were cleansed of all foul March, 1857,
suspicions, what did this avail, so long as their com-
rades in the several regiments to which they be-
longed believed them to be defiled, and were, there-
fore, casting them out from the brotherhood?

The Thirty-sixth Regiment formed the escort of
the Commander-in-Chief. There was a detachment
from it in the Rifle Dep&t ; and it happened that one
day, at the end of the third week of March, two non-
commissioned ofl&cers from this detachment visited
the regimental camp, and were publicly taunted by
a Soubahdar with having become Christians. They
carried back this story to the Dep&t, and one of
them, when he told it to Lieutenant Martineau, the
Instructor, cried like a child in his presence, said
that he was an outcast, and that the men of his
regiment had refused to eat with him. A man of
more than common quickness of intelligence and
depth of thought, Martineau saw at once the terrible
significance of this, and he pushed his inquiries
further among the men of the Dep&t. The result
left no doubt upon his mind, that in every detach-
ment there was the same strong feeling of terror, lest
having used the new greased cartridges, or having
been suspected of using them, they should become
outcasts from their regiments, and shunned by their
brethren on returning to their own villages. This
was no mere fancy. Already had the detachments
found their intercourse with their regiments sus-
pended. They had written letters to their distant
comrades and received no answers ; and now they
asked, not without a great show of reason, “ If a
Soubahdar in the Commander-m-Chiefs camp, and
on duty as his personal escort, can taunt us with loss
of caste, what Idnd of .reception shall we meet on our

554

ODXBEEAK OF THE MUTUJT.

ilarcli, 1857. return to our own corps? No reward tliat Govem-
UmMah. ^ ig gjjy equivalent for being re-

garded as outcasts by our own comrades.” Plainly,
then, . it was Mariineau’s duty to communicate all
that he knew to the Commauder-in-Chief, and being
his duty, he was not a man to shrink from doing it.
So he wrote at once to the Assistant- Adjutant-General,
Septimus Becher, and told his story — ^privately in
the first instance, biit afterwards, at Becher’s sug-
gestion, in an official letter. But already had the
Commander-in-Chief learnt also from other sources
the feeling of consternation that was pervading the
ininds of the men of the Dep6t. On the 19th of
March the Soubahdar had insulted the men of the
detachment ; on the 20th, Martineau wrote his first
letter to Anson’s Staff ; on the morning of the 23rd
the Commander-in-Chief was to inspect the Rifle
Dop6t ; and on the previous evening a report reached
him that the men of the detachments wished to speak
to him, through their delegates, on parade. He de-
termined, therefore, to take the initiative, and to ad-
dress them. So, after the Inspection parade, he
formed the detachments into a hollow square, and
calling the Native officers to the front, within a short
distance of his Staff, began his oration to the troops.
He had not the advantage, which Hearsay enjoyed,
of being able to address them fluently in their own
language. But, if his discourse was therefore less
impressive, it was not less dear; for calling Mar-
tineau to his aid, Anson paused at the end of each
brief sentence, heard it translated into Hindostanee,
and asked if the men understood its import. It was
thus that he spoke to them :

“The Commander-in-Chief is desirous of taking
iu-Ctiief. this opportunity of addressing a few words to the

GENERAL ANSQN’S ADDRESS.

555

Native officers assembled at this Bepbi, which has Maroh, 185 ?.
been formed for the instruction of the Army in the
use of the new Rifle. The Native officers have been
selected for this duty on account of their superior in-
telligence upon all matters connected with the service
to which they belong. The Commander-in-Chief
feels satisfied, therefore, that they will exercise that
intelligence, and employ the influence which their
positions warrant him in supposing they possess, for
the good of the men who are placed under their
authority, and for the advantage of the Army gene-
rally. In no way can this be more beneficially
proved than in disabusing their minds of any mis-
taken notion which they may have been led to enter-
tain respecting the intentions and orders of the Go-
vernment whom they have engaged to serve. The
introduction of a better arm has rendered it neces-
sary to adopt a different system of loading it, and an
improved description of cartridge. The Commander-
in-Chief finds that, on account of the appearance of
the paper used for the cartridges, and of the material
with which they are made up according to the pat-
terns sent from England,- objections have been raised
to their use by Sepoys of various Religions and
Castes, and that endeavours have been made to in-
duce them to believe that it is the express object of
the Government to subvert their Religion and to sub-
ject them to the loss of Caste on which they set so
high a value.

“ A moment’s calm reflection must convince every
one how utterly groundless and how impossible it is
that there can be the slightest shadow of truth in
such a suspicion. In what manner or degree could
the Government gain by such a proceeding? Can
any one explain what could be the object of it? The^

55e

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

March, 1857. Coinmander-in-Chief is sure tliat all will allow that
Umballah. nothing has ever occurred to justify a suspicion that
the Government ever wished to coerce the i’fatives of
India in matters of Religion, or to interfere unneces-
sarily with their Customs, or even with the cere-
monies which belong to their different Castes.

“The Commander-in-Chief regrets to hear that
there have been instances in the Army of the dis-
belief of the Sepoys in the assurances of their officers
that they would not be required to use cartridges
which were made of materials to which they could
reasonably object, and that they have acted in a
manner which must destroy all confidence in them
as soldiers, whose first duty is obedience to the Go-
vernment whom they serve, and to their superiors.
The Government wiU. know how to deal with such
instances of insubordination, and the Commander-
in-Chief does not hesitate to say that they should be
visited with the severest punishment.

“ But the object of the Commander-in-Chief is not
to threaten, and he hopes that it is unnecessary even
to point out to those whose breasts are decorated
with proofs of gallantry and good service, what is
their duty. He wishes simply to assure them, on
the honour of a soldier like themselves, that it has
never been, and never will be, the policy of the
Government of this great country to coerce either
those serving in the Army or the Natives of India in
their rehgious feelings, or to interfere with the cus-
toms of their Castes. He trusts to the Native officers
who are present here to make this known to their
respective regiments, and to exert themselves in
allaying the fears of those who may have been mo-
mentarily seduced from their duty by evil-disposed
persons. He is satisfied that they wifi, do everything

ALARM OF THE DETACHMENTS.

557

in their power to prevent the shame which must fall March, 1857.
upon all who are faithless to the colours under which
they have sworn allegiance to the Government, and
that they will prove themselves deserving of the high
character which they have always hitherto main-
tained in this Army.”

The Native ofElcers in front, who alone, perhaps,
were enabled by their position to hear the address
of the Chief, listened attentively and with a respect-
ful denieanour to what was said; and when the
parade was over, they expressed to Martineau,
through the medium of three of their body acting as
spokesmen, their high sense of the honour that had
been done to them by the condescension of His Ex-
cellency in addressing them on parade. But they
urged upon him that, although they did not them-
selves attribute to the Government any of the evil
designs referred to in that address, it was true that
for one man who disbelieved the, story, there were
ten thousand who believed it; that it was univer-
sally credited, not only in their regiments, but every-
where in their native villages; and that, therefore,
although the men of the detachments were ready to
a man to use the cartridge when ordered, they de-
sired to represent, for the paternal consideration of
the Commander-in-Chief, the social consequences to
themselves of military obedience. They would be-
come outcasts for ever, shunned by their comrades,
and discarded by their families, and would thus
suffer for their obedience the most terrible punish^
ment that could be inflicted upon them upon this
side of the grave.* Martineau promised to repre-

« Lieutenant Martineau to Cap- of intelligence and fidelity thus be-
tain Septimus Beoher. The writer comes to them the moat fatal curse;
adds: “Their being selected as men they will obey the orders of their

55S

.'OIITBEEAK OE THE MUTINY. .

Marcb, 1857. sent all tMs to the Commander-in-Chief ; and he
Umballak. ^ official letter, through the legitimat"

channel of the Adjutant-General’s office. The matte
•was weighing heavily upon Anson’s mind. He saw
clearly what the difficulty was. “ I have no doubt,”
he wrote on that day to the Governor-General, “ that
individually they (the men of the detachments) are
content, and that their own minds "will be set at rest ;
hut it is the manner in which they will he received
hy their comrades, -when they regain their regiments,
that -weighs upon my mind.” But what was to he
done? To remove from their minds all fear of the
greased cartridges was only to drive them upon ap
equal fear of the greased paper, which it was stiU
more difficult to remove.* He had thought at one
time of breaking up the Dep6t, and sending back the
detachments to their regiments, on the ground of the
advanced state of the, season; hut this would only,

military superiors, and socially perish to regard the greased cartridges,
through their instinct of obedience, alleged to be smeared with cows* and
That their views are not exaggerated, pigs* fat, more as t lie medium than
some knowledge of the native cha- as the original cause of this wide-
racter, and of the temper of the spread feming of distrust that is
Native mind (non-military as well as spreading dissatisfaction to our rule,
military) at this present moment, and tending to alienate the fidelity
tend to convince me. The Asiatic of the Native Army.**
mind is periodically prone to fits of ^ I am not so much surprised,**
leligious panic; in this state, reason- wrote General Anson to Lord Can-
ing that would satisfy us is utterly ning on the 23rd of March, "at their
llirown away upon them; their ima- objections to the cartridges, liaving
ginations run riot on preconceived seen them. I had no idea they con-
yiews, and oftenthe more absurd they tained, or rather are smeared with,
are, the more tenaciously do they such a quantity of grease, which
cling to them. We are now pass- looks exactly like fat. After ram-
ing through one of these paroxysms, ming down the ball, the muzzle of
which we might safely disregard were the musket is covered with it. This,
not unfortunately the niilitary ele- however, will, I imagine, not be the
inept mixed up in it. What the ex- case with those prepared according
citing causes are that at this present to the late instructions. But there
moment are operating on the Native are now misgivings about the pajper,
mind, to an universal extent through- and I think it so desirable that they
out these provinces, I cannot dis- should be assured that no animal
cover; no Native can on will offer grease is used in its manufacture,
any explanation, but I am disposed thzi a special report shad be made

mWS OF LOED CANNING.

559 '

he argued on reflection, he a cowardly staving-off of Mai-ch, i 837 .
the question, so he determined merely to direct that
the drill instruction should not proceed to the point
of firing until a special report should have been re-
ceived from Meerut on the subject of the suspected
paper.

To Lord Canning, it appeared that any postpone-
ment of the target practice of the drill detachments
would be a mistake. It would be a concession to
unreasonable fears, which would look like an ad-
mission that there was reason in them; so, having
first telegraphed to UmbaJlah the substance of his'
letter, he wrote to General Anson, saying ; “ I April 4 ,
gather that you are not decidedly in favour of this
course, and certainly I am much opposed to it
myself. The men, it seems, have no objection of
their own to use the cartridges, but dread the
taunts of their comrades after they have rejoined.

These taunts will be founded, not on their havino-
handled unclean grease, for against that the whole
Army has been protected for many weeks past by
the late orders, but upon suspicions .respecting the
paper Now, although in the matter of grease the
Government was in some degree in the wrong (not
having taken aU the precaution that might have
been taken to exclude objectionable ingredients), in

lo me on that, head from ^Nfeerut, would' only be deferred till another
and until I receive an answer, and year, and I trust that the measures
am satisfied that no objectionable, taken hy the Government when the
material is used, no firing, at the > objection was first made, and the
depots by the Sepoys will take place, example of the punishment of the
It would be easy to dismiss the de- Nineteenth Native Infantry, and of
tachments to their regiments with- the other , delinquents of tlie Seven-'
out any practice, on tlie ground that tieth, now being tried by a general
the hot weather is so advanced, and court-martial, will have the "effect we
that very little progress conld’ be “desire.” [It is probable that General
made, but I do not think that would Alison here referred to the trial of
be advisable. The question having the men of the Second Grenadiers.J,
been- raised, must settled. It '--MS. CorreBpondencef -

560 ,

OUTBREAK OF THE MUHNT,-

April, 1867. tie matter of paper it is entirely in the right. There
“ “ * ‘ is nothing offensive to the Caste of the Sepoys in the
paper; they have no pretence for saying so. The
contrary has been proved ; and if we give way upon
this point I do not see where we can take our stand.
It may be, as you hope, that the detachments at
Umballah, being well-conditioned men, would not
consider a compliance with their request as a giving
way on the part of the Government, or as a victory
on their own part. But I fear it would be so with
their comrades in the re^ments. When the detach-
ments return to their Head-quarters, they would
^ve an account of the concession they had obtained,
which would inevitably, and not unreasonably, lead
to the suspicion that the Government is doubtful of
the right Of its own case. It could hardly be other-
wise ; and if, s0, we should have increased our diffi-
culties for hereafter — ^for I have no faith in this
question dying away of itself during the idleness of
the hot season, unless it is grappled with at once. I
would, therefore, make the men proceed to use the
cartridges at practice. It will be no violence to
their own consciences, for they are satisfied that the
paper is harmless ; and it will, in my opinion, much
more effectually pave the way towards bringing their
several regiments to reason, whether the objections
thereto felt are sincere or not, than any postpone-
ment. Moreover, I do not think that we can quite
consistently take any other course after what has
passed with the Nineteenth Regiment ; for, though
the climax of their crime was taking up arms, the
refusal of the cartridges has been declared to be the
beginning of the offence. Neither do I like the
thought of countenancing consultations and refe-
rences between the men of a regiment upon matters

GENEEAL ANSON AT SIMLAH.

561

in wMcli they have nothing to do hut to obey ; and April, 1857^
I fear that postponement would look like an acqui-
escence in such references.” So it was determined
that there should be no cowardly postponement of
the evil day, and the detachments in the Musketry
Schools were ordered to proceed, under the new regu-
lations, to the end of their course of instruction.*

Whilst this letter was making its way to the foot
of the Hills, General Anson, whose health had been
severely tried, and who had long been looking
anxiously towards the cool, fresh slopes of the
Himalayahs, betook himself hopefully to Simlah.

That paradise of invalids, he wrote to the Governor-
General, was “looking beautiful, and the climate
now quite perfect.” “ I heartily wish,” he added,

“ that you were here to benefit by it.” But it was
not a time for the enjoyment of Himalayan delights.

At both ends of that long line of a thousand miles
between the great Presidency town and the foot of
the HiUs there was that which, as the month ad-
vanced, must have sorely disquieted the m i n ds of
the civil and military chiefs. There was the great
difdculty of the Thirty-fourth to disturb both the
Governor-General and the Commander-in-Chief ; and
as time advanced, there came from other parts of the
country tidings which, if they did not help them to
fathom causes, brought more plainly before them the
probable consequences of this great panic in the

^ The orders issued from the Ad- their ofiBcers were to reason with
‘ jutaut-General’s office, in conse- them, calmly in the first instance,
quence of this decision, were, that and if the T)ep6t, after such an ap-
the detachments should proceed to peal to them, were to refuse to use
target practice, that they should the cartridges, more stringent mea-
choose and apply their own grease, snres were to be resorted to for the
and that they should pinch or tear enforcement of discipline.—
off the end of the cartridge with from Adjutant^ General^ to General
their fingers. In the event of the Mearsey^ in the Appendix,
men hesitating to use the cartridges,

2 o

562

OUTBEEAK OF THE MUTEST

April, 1857. Sepoy Army. Those significant fires, which had pre-
Umballah, outbreak at Barrackpore, were breaking

out at other stations. At Umballah especially, in
the middle of the month of April, they had become
frequent and alarming. The detachments in the
Musketry Schools were now proceeding steadily with
their target practice. They dipped their own cartridges
into a mixture of beeswax and ghee, and seemed to
be fuUy convinced and assured that no foul play was
intended against them. But they did not escape the
taunts of their comrades ; and the nightly fires in-
dicated the general excitement among the Native
soldiery. The European barracks, the commissariat
store-houses, the hospital, and the huts in the Lines,
night after night, burst out into mysterious confla-
gration. It was the behef at Head-Quarters that
these fires, made easy by the dry thatched roofs of
the buildings, were the work partly of the Sepoys
of the regiments stationed there, and partly of those
attached to the Musketry Dep6t. The former still
looked askance at the latter, believing that they
had been bought over by promises of promotion to
use the obnoxious cartridges, and, as a mark of
• their indignation, set fire to the huts of the apos-
tates in their absence at drill. Upon this the men
of the Musketry School retaliated, by firing the
Lines of the regimental Sepoys.* But the Courts of
Inquiry which were held to investigate the circum-
stances of these incendiary fires failed to elicit any
positive information ; for no one was willing to give

* "The night before last a fire- Native Infantry were fired, and five
ball was fonnd ignited in the hut of huts, with all the men’s property
a Sepoy of the Fifth Native Infantry, destroyed. This was clearly an act
The hut was empty, as the man is of retfuiation, for incendiaries do not
attached to the School of Masketry, destroy themselves.” — Genera} Bar-
and lives with them. On the fol- nard to Lord Oanwig. April 24,
lowing night the Lines of the Sixtieth 1857.— AfS. Correepoudence.

Sm HENRY BABNiJBD.

563

evidence, and nothing -was done to put pressure upon April, I857.
witnesses to reveal the knowledge which they pos-
sessed.

At this time Sir Henry Barnard, an officer of sirHenrj
good repute, who had served with distinction in the
Crimea, commanded the Sirhind Division of the
Army, in which Umballah was one of the chief sta-
tions. He was a man of high courage and activity,
eager for service, and though he had not been many
months in the country, he had begun to complain of
the dreadful listlessness of Indian life, and the ab-
sence of that constant work and responsibility which,
he said, had become a necessity to him. “ Cannot
you find some tough job to put me to ? I will serve
you faithfully.” Thus he wrote to Lord Canning ia
the last week of Apiil, seeing nothing before him at
that time but a retreat to Simlah “ when the burn-
ing mania is over.” Little thought he then of the
tough job in store for him — a job too tough -for his
steel, good as was the temper of it. The Commander-
in-Chief wrote from Simlah that Barnard was learn-
ing his work. “ It will take him some time,” said
Anson, “to understand the Native character and
system.” And no reproach to him either;* for
nothing was more beyond the ordinary comprehen-
sion of men, trained in schools of European warfare,
than Sepoy character in its normal state, except its
aberrations and eccenHcities. Anson had been two
years in India; but he confessed that what was
passing at Umballah sorely puzzled him. “ Strange,”
he wrote to Lord Canning, “that the incendiaries
should never be detected. Every one is on the alert

^ That Sir Henry Barnard thought dian military system, and the causes
much and wrote very sensibly of the of the prevailing disaffection, 1 have
Sepoy Army, the defects of our In- ample evidence in letters before me.

2 0 2

564

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

April, 1S57.
Umballali.

Events at
Ueerut.

there ; but still no clue to trace the offenders.” And,
again, at the end of the month, “We have not been
able to detect any of the incendiaries at IJmballah.
This appears to me extraordinary ; but it shows how
close the combination is among the miscreants who
have recourse to this mode of revenging what they
conceive to be their wrongs, and how great the dread
of retaliation to any one who would dare to become
an informer.” It showed, too, how little power we
had of penetrating beneath the surface, and how
great was the mistrust of the English throughout all
classes of the Native soldiery. Let what might be
the hatred and dissension among themselves, a com-
mon feeling still stronger closed their hearts and
sealed their lips against their English officers.

Day after day this fact became more and more
apparent. To the most observant of our people it
seemed at first that, although the ministers and de-
pendents of the deposed Mahomedan ruler of Oude
might have been insidiously employed in the eorrup-
tion of our Native soldiery, the alarm, and therefore
the discontent among the Sepoys, was for the most
part an emanation of Hindooism. The inquiries into
the state of the Thirty-fourth Eegiment at Barrack-
pore had resulted in a belief that the Mahomedan
and Sikh soldiers were true to their salt; and so
strong was the impression that only the Hindoos of
the disbanded Nineteenth were really disaffected,
that, after the dispersion of the regiment, it was be-
lieved that the whole history of the mutiny, which
had ruined them, might be gathered from the Mus-
sulman Sepoys. But, although a sagacious civil
officer was put upon their track, and every effort
was made to elicit the desired information, the at-
tempt was altogether a failure. Whether these first
impressions were right or wrong, whether the mutmy

FIRST MUTINY IN THE CAVALRY.

5G5

was, in its origin and inception, a Hindoo or a Ma- April, 1857.
homedan movement, will hereafter be a subject
inquiry. But, before the end of the month of April,
it must have been apparent to Lord Canning that
nothing was to be hoped from that antagonism of
the Asiatic races, w'hich had ever been regarded as
the main element of our strength and safety. Ma-
homedans and Hindoos were plainly united against
us.

From an unexpected quarter there soon came proof
of this union. As the new Enfield rifle had been the
outward and visible cause of the great fear that had
arisen in the minds of the soldiery, it was natural
that the anxieties of the Government should, in the
first instance, have been confined to the Native In-
fantry. In the Infantry Eegiments a very large
majority of the men were Hindoos ; whilst in the
Cavalry the Mahomedan element was proportion-
ately much stronger.* But now there came from
Meerut strange news to the effect that a Cavahy
regiment had revolted.

To this station many unquiet thoughts had been
directed ; for it was one of the largest and most im-
portant in the whole range of our Indian territories.

There, troops of aU arms, both European and Native,
were assembled. There, the Head-Quarters of the
Bengal Artillery were established. There, the Ord-
nance Commissariat were diligently employed, in the
Expense Magazine, on the manufacture of greased
cartridges. There, the English Eiflemen of the
Sixtieth, not without some feelings of disgust, were
using the unsavory things. More than once there had

* As a rule, the Mahomedans were ever, that ia the Third Eegimeat of
better horsemen and more adroit Eegular Cavalry, which led off the
swordsmen than the Hindoos, and dance of death at Meerut, there
therefore they made more service- were an unusual number of Brah-
able troopers. It is stated, how- mins.

566

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

been reports that tbe Sepoys had risen at Meerut,
and that the Europeans had been let loose against
them. With vague but eager expectancy the Native
regiments at all the large stations in tipper India
were looking in that direction, as for a signal
which they knew would soon be discerned. Men
asked each other what was the news from Meerut,
and looked into the Native newspapers for the sug-
gestive heading ; for it was the cradle of all sorts of
strange and disturbing stories. In this month of April
its crowded Lines and busy Bazaars were stirred
by indefinite apprehensions of something coming.
Every day the excitement increased, for every day
some new story, intended to confirm the popular
belief in the base designs of the English, found its
way into circulation. The emissary of evil, who, in
some shape or other, was stalking across the country,
was at Meerut in the guise of a wandering Eakeer,
or religious mendicant, riding on an elephant, with
many followers. That he was greatly disturbing the
minds of men was certain ; so the Police authorities
ordered him to depart. He moved ; but it was be-
lieved that he went no farther than the Lines of one
of the Native regiments.*

In no place was the story of the greased cartridges
discussed with greater eagerness than at Meerut ; in

* Compare following passage in were moving about the country ap-
the Meerut Narrative of Mr. Wil- peared at Meerut in April, ostensibly
hams, Commissioner Pirst Division ; as a fakeer, riding on an elephant
“All the rumours by which the with followers, and having with him
minds of the Native soldiers were liorses and native carriages. The
prepared for revolt, were indus- frequent visits of the men of the
tnonsly disseminated at Meerut, Native regiments to him attracted
especially those regarding the use of attention, and he was ordered,
polluting grease in the preparation of through the police, to leave the
the new (^.i^ridges, ana the mixture place ; he apparently complied, but,
or ground bones in flour, by which, it is said, he stayed some time in
It was sa.id. Government desired to Lines of the 20th Native Infantry
destroy the religion of the people. —Unjfublisied Eecords,

One of the many emissaries who

THE THIRD CAVALRY.

567

Ho place was there a more disturbing belief that this April, 1857.
■was a part of a great scheme for the defilement
the people. It was of little use to declare to them
that not a single soldier would ever be required to
use a cartridge greased by any one but himself, for
the greasing of the cartridges was in their estimation
only one of many fraudulent devices, and every one
believed that the dry cartridges contained the ob-
noxious fat. So, in the beginning of the fourth week
of April, the excitement, which for many weeks had
been growing stronger and stronger, broke out in|o
an act of open mutiny. The troopers of the Third
Cavalry were the first to resist the orders of their
officers. They had no new weapons ; no new ammu-
nition. The only change introduced into their prac-
tice was that which substituted the pinching or tear-
ing off, for the biting off, the end of the cartridges
which they used with their carbines. This change
in the drill was to be explained to them on a parade
of the skirmishers of the regiment, which was to be
held on the morning of the 24th of April. On the
preceding evening a report ran through canton-
ments that the troopers would refuse to touch the
cartridges. The parade was held, and of ninety
men, to whom the ammunition was to have been
served out, only five obeyed the orders of their
officers. In vain Colonel Carmichael Smyth ex-
plained to them that the change had been introduced
from a kindly regard for their o-wn scruples. They
were dogged and obdurate, and would not touch the
cartridges. So the parade was dismissed, and the
eighty-five troopers of the Third were ordered for
Court-martial.

All this made it manifest to Lord Canning that The stoiy of
the worst suspicions were deeply rooted in the Sepoy
Army; and though he at aU times maintained a

568

ODTBEEAK OF THE MUTINY,

April, 1867. calm and clieerful demeanour, he thought much and
anxiously of the signs and symptoms of the troubled
spirit that was abroad. There were many indications
that these suspicions were not confined to the mili-
tary classes, but were disquieting also the general
community. Not only in Meerut, but also in many
other parts of the country, there was a belief that
the Enghsh designed to defile both Hindoos and
Mahomedans, by polluting mth unclean matter the
daily food of the people. It has been shown that
S|^. suspicion of a similar character was abroad at the
fime of the Mutiny at VeUore.* Now the disturbing
rumour, cunningly circulated, took many portentous
shapes. It was said that the officers of the British
Government, under command from the Company and
the Queen, had mixed ground bones with the flour
and the salt sold in the Bazaars; that they had
adulterated all the gheef with animal fat ; that bones
had been burnt with the common sugar of the
country ; and that not only bone-dust flour, but the
flesh of cows and pigs, had been thrown into the wells
to pollute the drinking water of the people. Of this
great imaginary scheme of contamination the matter
of the greased cartridges was but a part, especially
addressed to one class of the community. All classes,
it was believed, were to be defiled at the same time ;
and the story ran that the “ hurra sahibs,” or great
English lords, had commanded all the princes, nobles,
landholders, merchants, and cultivators of the land,
to feed together upon English bread.

Of these preposterous fables, the one which made
the strongest impression on the public mind was the

* paM 248. It was tlien •[■ TMs is the ordinary grease nsed
said that the English had mixed the for cooking purposes throughout
blood of cows and pigs with all the India,
newly manufactured salt.

THE BONE-DUST FLODE.

5G9

Story of the bone-dust flour. That it was current in April, 1857.
March at Barrackpore is certain.* In the early part
of April, a circumstance occurred which proved that
the panic had then spread to the Upper Provinces.

It happened that flour having risen to an exceptionally
high price at Cawnpore, certain dealers at Meerut
chartered a number of Government boats to carry a
large supply down the canal to the former place.

When the first instalment arrived, and was offered for
sale at a price considerably below that which had
previously ruled in the Bazaars, it found a ready
market; but before the remainder reached Cawn-
pore, a story had been circulated to the effect that the
grain had been ground in the canal mills, under Eu-
ropean supervision, and that the dust of cows’ bones
had been mixed up with it, with the intention of
destroying the caste of all who should eat it. Such
a story as this, circulated in the Lines and the Mili-
tary Bazaars of Cawnpore, at once stopped the sale
of the Meerut flour. Not a Sepoy would touch it,
not a person of any kind would purchase it, cheap
as was the price at which it was obtainable in com-
parison with all the other supplies in the market.

Rapidly spread the alarm from one station to an-
other, and as tidings came of the arrival of imaginary
boat-loads or camel-loads of flour and bone-dust, men
threw away the bread that they were eating, and be-

^ It was brought to the notice of as it was found. But History re-
General Hearsey by a native anony- joices in the preservation, of such
mous letter^ picked up at the gate of contemptible ^ productions. I have
Major Matthews, who commanded given it entire in the Appendix,
the Forty-third. The Major sent it to There are many such in^ my posses-
Hearsey’s staff, describing it as sad sion, but this is the earliest in date,
trash;’’ and Hearsey, in forwarding it and gives the most comprehensive
to the Military Secretary, expressed account of the rumours circulated
regret that the contemptible pro- by our enemies,
duction had not been burnt as soon

570

OUTBEEAK OF THE MUTINY.

April, 1857. lieved themselves already defiled.* Whether, as some
said, this was a trick of the Cawnpore grain mer-
chants to keep up the price of flour, or whether the
story had been set afloat under the same influences
as those which had given so false a colouring to the
accident of the greased cartridges, and had asso-
ciated with all the other wild fictions of which I have
spoken, cannot with certainty be declared. But,
whatsoever the origin of the fable, it sunk deeply
into men’s minds, and fixed there more ineradicably
than ever their belief in the stern resolution of the
Government to destroy the caste of the people by
fraudulently bringing, in one way or other, the un-
clean thing to their lips.

ITie story ol It fixed, too, more firmly than before in the mind

(Maties.' of Lord Canning, the belief that a great fear was
spreading itself among the people, and that there was
more danger in such a feeling than in a great hatred.
Thinking of this, he thought also of another strange
story that had come to him from the North-West,
and which even the most experienced men about him
were incompetent to explain. From village to vil-
lage, brought by one messenger and sent onward by
another, passed a mysterious token in the shape of
one of those flat cakes made from flour and water,
and forming the common bread of the people, which,
in their language, are called Chupatties. All that
was knovm about it was, that a messenger appeared,
gave the cake to the head man of one village, and re-
quested him to despatch it onward to the next ; and

• _ Colonel Baird BmitE to Mr. of our stations, and Sepoys, private
Colvin— Mr. Martin Gubbins to the servants, Zemindars attending Court,
same. “ Once alarmed,” wrote the have flnng away their roti (bread)
latter, “they drink in the greatest on hearing that five camel-loads of
follies. Bone-dnst attah alarm has bone-dust attah had readied the sta-
taken hold of men’s minds at several tion.” — MS. Correspondence.

STORY OF THE CHDPATTIES.

571

triat, in this way, it travelled from place to place ; no 1857.
one refusing, no one doubting, few even questioning,
in blind obedience to a necessity felt rather than
understood. After a while, this practice became
known to the functionaries of the Engbsh Govern-
ment, who thought much of it, or thought little of
it, according to their individual dispositions, and in-
terpreted it, in divers ways, according to the light
that was in them.* The greater number looked
upon it as a signal of warning and preparation, de-
signed to tell the people that something great and
portentous was about to happen, and to prompt
cnem to he ready for the crisis. One great autho-
rity wrote to the Governor-General that he had been
xoid that the chupatty was the symbol of men’s food,
and that its circulation was intended to alarm and to
influence men’s minds by indicating to them that
their means of subsistence would be taken from
them, and to teU them, therefore, to hold together.

Others, laughing to scorn this notion of the fiery
cross, saw in it only a common superstition of the
country. It was said that it was no unwonted thing
for a Hindoo, in whose family sickness had broken
out, to institute this transmission of chupatties, in the
belief that it would carry off the disease ; or for a
community, when the cholera or other pestilence
was raging, to betake themselves to a similar prac-
tice. Then, again, it was believed by others that the
cakes had been sent abroad by enemies of the British
Government, for the purpose of attachiug to their
circulation another dangerous fiction, to the effect

* Mr. Ford, Collector of Goor- vin, who issued circular orders on
gaon, first brought it to the notice the subject to all the local ofScersin
of the Lieutenant-Governor of the charge of districts.

North-Western Provinces, Mr. Col-

572

OUTBREAK. OP TEE MUTINY.

April, 1857. that there was bone-dust in them, and that the Eng-
lish had resorted to this supplementary method of
defiling the people. Some, too, surmised that, by a
device sometimes used for other purposes,* seditious
letters were in this manner forwarded from village to
village, read by the village chief, again crusted over
with flour, and sent on in the shape of a chupatty,
to be broken by the next recipient. But whatsoever
the real history of the movement, it had doubtless
the effect of producing and keeping alive much
popular excitement in the districts through which
the cakes were transmitted ; and it may be said that
its action was too widely diffused, and that it lasted
for too long a time, to admit of a very ready adop-
tion of the theory that it was of an accidental cha-
racter, the growth only of domestic, or even of
municipal, anxieties.f Some saw in it much mean-
ing; some saw none. Time has thrown no new

* In this manner communication tlie direction of Indore. That city
-was sometimes* held with the in- was at the time afflicted with a
mates of our gaols* See the ** Re- severe visitation of cholera, and
velations of an Orderly,” by Paunch- numbers of inhabitants died daily,
kowree Khan : “ Suppose a pri- It was at that time understood by
soner is confiued under the bayonet the people in Nimar, and is still be-
ef Sepoys, he must be permitted to lieved, that the cakes of wheat were
eat bread. The preparer of food is despatched from Indore after the
bribed, and a short note is put into performance over them of incanta-
a chupatty, or a sentence is written tions that would ensure the pesti-
on a plate, and when the bread is lence accompanying them. The cakes
taken up the prisoner reads what is did not come straight from North
written.” ^ to South, for they were received at

t The circulation of the chupatties Pujengghur, more than half way
commenced at the beginning of the between Indore and Gwalior, on the
year. ‘‘The year 1857,” writes Cap- 9th of Pebruary, but had been dis-
tain Keatinge, “opened in Nimar by tributed at Mundlaiser on the I2th
a general distribution of small cakes, of January. This habit of passing
which were passed on from village to on holy and unholy things is not
village. The same, I am aware, has unknown at Nimar. When small-
occurred all over Northern India, pox breaks out in a village, a goat
and has been spoken of as having is procured, a cocoa-nut tied to
been a signal for the disturbances its neck, and it is taken by the
which took place later in the year, chowkeedar to the first village on
At the time they appeared in Nimar, the road to Mundatta ; it is not.
they were everywhere brought from allowed to enter the town, but is

POLITICAL INTRIGUES.

573

light upon it. Opinions still widely differ. And all April, 1857.
that History can record with any certainty is, that
the bearers of these strange missives went from place
to place, and that ever as they went new excite-
ments were engendered, and vague expectations were
raised.

That in all this there was something more than Political
mere military disaffection was manifest to Lord‘“*‘^^“'
Canning; hut neither he nor his confidential ad-
visers could clearly discern what it was. He had a
general conception that evil-minded men, with strong
resentments to be gratified by the ruin of the British
Government, were sending forth their emissaries ; but,
with the exception of the ministers of the dethroned
King of Oude, whom he had suspected from the first,*

taken by a villager to tlie next ^ In my mind there is no doubt
hamlet, and so passed on without of the activity, at this time, of the
rest to its destination.” This last Oude people at Garden Eeaeli. The
is the scvipturally recorded scape- Sepoys at Bairackpore were induced
goat. With respect to the chupatties, to believe that, if they broke away
consult also the report of Major from the English harness, they would
Erskine, Commissioner of the Saugor obtain more lucrative service under
and Nerbudda territories : “ So far the restored kingship of Oude. T
back as January, 1867,'^ he writes, have before me some letters, origi-
small wlieaten cakes (chupatties) nal and translated, of a Jemadar of
were passed in a most mysterious the Thirty-fourth Eegiment, which
manner from village to village in contain numerous allusions to the
most of the districts, and, although Euture of the Kiii£?’s service. Take
all took it as a signal that some- , the following : “ The Second Grena-
tiiing was coming, nobody in the diers said, iu the beginning of April,
division, I believe, knew what it ‘We will go to our homes sooner
portended, or whence it came, and than bite the blank, ammunition.*
it appeared to have been little The regiments were unanimous in
thought about except that in the joining the King of Oude,’* “ The
money-market of Saugor it is said Soubahdars of the Quarter-Gu^d
to have had some slight effect in said, ' We have sided with the King
bill transactions. 1 reported the of Oude, but nothing has come of
matter to Government at the time, it.’ ” “ Eamshaee Lalla said, ' It
but even now it is a matter of doubt would have been well for us.’ ” This
if the signal was understood \y^ any also has its significance: *‘Soubah-
oMi or if it referred to the coming dar Muddeh Khan, Sirdar Kliaii, and
rebellion, though such is now the Ramshaee Lalla said, ‘The Eering-
general opinion.” I have thrown hee Beteechoots’ (a vile term of op-
together in the Appendix some fur- probrium) ‘are unequalled in their
ther facts and fancies illustrative of want of faith. The King of Luck-
this interesting subject of inquiry. now put down liis arms, and the

574

OUTBREAK OT THE MUTINT.

April, 1857. he could not individualise his suspicions. How was
he to know, how was any Englishman, shut up all
day long in his house, and haviag no more living
intercourse with the people than if they were clay
figures, to know what was passing beneath the sur-
face of Native society ? If anything were learnt at
that time to throw light upon the sources of the
great events that were to happen, it was hy merest
accident, and the full force of the revelation was
rarely discernible at the time. It was remembered
afterwards that, in the early part of this year, one
man, a Mahratta by race, a Brahmin by caste, of
whom something has already been recorded in this
narrative, was displaying, in his movements, an un-
wonted activity, which created surprise, but scarcely
aroused suspicion. This man was Dundoo Punt,
commonly known as the Nana Sahib, of Bhitoor —
the adopted son of the Peishwah, Badjee Rao. He
was not given to distant journeyings ; indeed, he
was seldom seen beyond the limits of his own estate.
But in the early months of 1857, having visited
Calpee, he made a journey to Delhi, and, a little
later in the year, paid a visit to Lucknow. It was
in the middle of April that he started on this last
journey. On the 17th of that month, Mr. Morland,
then one of the Agra Judges, who shortly after the.
Peishwah’s death had been Commissioner at Bhitoor,
and who had endeavoured to rescue from resumption
a part of his pension, paid a visit to the Nana at that

Government have ^iven Mm no al- General Hearsej, sending on the
lowance. We advised the King to correspondence to Government, said
put down his arms. The treachery that there was “ much method iri
of the Government is unrivalled.’ ” his supposed madness and added,
Colonel Wheler said that the writer tliat " much important information
of these letters appeared to be af- on the whole cause and subject of
fected in the head.” It will be re- this Cartridge Mutiny might

menibered that the Native officer be elicited from him.”— Corre-^
who reported the coming massacre spoijideTice:
of Yeliore was also said to be mad.

THE NANA SAHIB.

575

place. The wily Mussulman Agent, Azim-ooUah Khan,
who had pleaded his cause in England, was with
Dundoo Punt when the English gentleman was an-
nounced, and they talked freely together, as Mends
talk, no suspicion on the one side, and no appearance of
anything unwonted on the other. All was outwardly
smooth and smiling. The Mahratta was as profuse
as ever in his expressions of respect and esteem ; and
when Morland took his departure, the brother ot
Dundoo Punt told him that the Nana purposed to
return the visit of the Sahib next day at Cawnpore.
The next day happened to be Sunday, and Morland
was anxious, therefore, to decline the visit ; but the
Nana Sahib went to Cawnpore, and again sent Baba
Bhut to the English gentleman to propose an inter-
view. What he wished to say to the man who had
been kind to him will now never be known, for
Morland declined the meeting, on the plea that it
was the Sabbath, and expressed regret that the
Nana Sahib should have made the journey to no
purpose. To this the Brahmin replied, that his
brother was on his way to Lucknow to visit one
of the Newabs. There was something in all this
strange and surprising. An English nobleman, in
the course of three or four months, might visit all
the chief cities of Europe without any one taking
heed of the occurrence. But the nobility of India
are little given to ^travelling ; and the Nana Sahib
had rarely gone beyond the limits of Bhitoor.*

* A different statement' has, I induced his adoptive father, Badjee
know, been made and commonly ac- Rao, to eschew it, namely, that a
cepted. It is the belief that the salute was not given to him on
Nana Sahib was frequently to be entering the cantonment. The per-
seen at Cawnpore, riding or driving son generally known in Cawnpore
on the Mall, and mixing freely witli as the *^Nana’^ was not Dundoo
the European residents of the place. Punt, but Nana Nerain Eao, the
But the truth is, he eschewed eldest son of the ex-Peish wall’s
‘Cawnpore, for the reason which chief adviser and manager, the Sou-

April, 1857.

576

ODIBEEAK OF THE MOTLNT.

April, 1857. That, within so short a time, he should make these
three journeys, was a fact to excite speculation ; but
he was held to be a quiet, inoffensive person, good
natured, perhaps somewhat dull, and manifestly not
of that kind of humanity of which conspirators are
made, so no political significance was attached to the
fact. What likehhood was there, at that time, that such
a man as Dundoo Punt, heavy and seemingly impas-
sive, who had for some years quietly accepted his po-
sition, and during that time done many acts of kind-
ness and hospitality to the English gentlemen, should
suddenly become a plotter against the State ? Had
any one then said that it behoved the Government to
mark the movements of that man, he would have
been laughed to scorn as an alarmist. We never
know in India how many are the waiters and the
watchers ; we never know at what moment our
enemies, sluggish in their hatreds as in all else, may
exact the payment of old scores which we have thought
were long ago forgotten.

So Dundoo Punt, Nana Sahib, passed on, about
some business known to himself, utterly unknown to
European functionaries, to Calpee, on the banks of
the Jumna, to the great imperial city of Delhi, and
to Lucknow, the capital of Oude. In the last of
these places, when the Nana arrived, Henry Law-
rence was diligently, with his whole good heart,
striving to make right all that had gone wrong
during the time of his predecessor. But again the
handwriting on the wall traced those fatal words,
“ Too late.” If he had but gone to Lucknow when
he had first offered to go, how different would all
have been 1 It was on the 18th of April that the
Nana Sahib started on his journey to Lucknow. On

balidarllamclmnderPimtj who, after familiarity with many of the prin-
his master’s death, resided at Cawn- cipal European residents,
pore, and was on terms of social

STATE or LUCKXOW.

577-

tliat day Henry Lawrence wrote a long letter to the April, TS3
Governor-General, telling him that he had discerned
signs of dangerous coalitions between the regular
Sepoy regiments, the Irregulars taken into our service
from the old Oude Army, and the men of the Police
battalions ; symptoms also of intrigues on foot among
some of the chief people of the city. There were
many elements of trouble ; and now they were be-
ginning to develop themselves in a manner signifi-
cant of a general outburst of popular discontent.

“ This city,” wrote Henry Lawrence on that 18th of
April, “ is said to contain some six or seven hundred
thousand souls, and does certainly contain many
thousands (twenty thousand, I was told yesterday) of
disbanded soldiers, and of hungry, nay starving, de-
pendents of the late Government. This very morn-
ing a clod was thro-wn at Mr. Ommaney (the Judicial
Commissioner), and another struck Major Anderson
(Chief Engineer) whilst in a hugg}!- with myself.

.... The improvements in the city here go on
very fast — too fast and too roughly. Much discon-
tent has been caused by demolition of buildings, and
still more by threats of further similar measures;
also regarding the seizure of religious and other
edifices, and plots of ground, as Huzool or Govern-
ment property. I have visited many of these places
and pacified parties, and prohibited any seizure or
demolition without competent authority. The Re-
venue measures, though not as sweeping as repre-
sented by the waiter whose letter your Lordship sent
me, have been unsatisfactory. The Talookhdars have,

I fear, been hardly dealt with ; at least, in the Fyza-
had division some have lost half their villages, some
have lost all.” Such stated here, in the hurried out-
line of a letter from the spot, to be dwelt upon more

578

OaiBKEAK OF THE MUTIXY.

April, issr. in detail hereafter, was the condition of affairs whidi,
Luckaow. q£ the Nana Sahib found in

Lucknow. He could have scarcely Avished for any
better materials from which to erect an edifice of re-
bellion.

By this Dundoo Punt, Nana Sahib— by all who
were festering with resentments against the English
and malignantly biding their time, the annexation of
Oude had been welcomed as a material aid to the
success of their machinations. It was no sudden
thought, born of the accident of the greased car-
tridges, that took the disappointed Brahmin and his
Mahomedan friend to Lucknow in the spring of this
year of trouble. For months, for years indeed, ever
since the failure of the mission to England had been
apparent, they had been quietly spreading their net-
work of intrigue all over the country. From one
native Court to another native Court, from one ex-
tremity to another of the great continent of India, the
agents of the Nana Sahib had passed with overtures
and invitations, discreetly, perhaps mysteriously,
Avorded, to Princes and Chiefs of different races and
religions, but most hopefully of all to the Mahrattas.
At the three great Mahratta families, the families of
the Eajah of Sattarah, of the PeishAvah, of the
Boonsla, Lord Dalhousie had struck deadly bloAA's.
In the Southern Mahratta country, indeed, it seemed
that Princes and Nobles were alike ripe for rebellion.
It Aras a significant fact that the agents of the great
Sattarah and Poona families had been doing their
master’s work in England about the same time, that
both had returned to India rank rebels, and that the
first year of Lord Canning’s administration found
Rungo-Bapojee as active for evil in the South as
Azim-oollah was in the North ; both able and unscru-

INTRIGUES OE THE NANA SAUIB.

570

pulous men, and hating the English with a deadlier April, isi?
hatred for the very kindness that had been shown to
them. But it was not until the crown had been set
upon the annexations of Lord Dalhousie by the
seizure of Oude, that the Nana Sahib and his accom-
plices saw m’Ach prospect of success. That event was
the turning-point of their career of intrigue. What
had before been difficult was now made easy by this
last act of English usurpation. Not only were the
ministers of the King of Oude tampering with the
troops at the Presidency, and sowing dangerous lies
broad-cast over the length and breadth of the land,
but such was the impression made by the last of
our annexations, that men asked each other who was
safe, and what use was there in fidelity, when so
faithful a friend and ally as the King of Oude was
stripped of his dominions by the Government whom
he had aided in its need. It is said that Princes and
Chiefs, who had held back, then came forward, and
that the Nana Sahib began to receive answers to his
appeals.* But whatsoever may have been its effect in

* By those who systematically re- 1858. After giving alist of numerous
ject Native evidence, all this may princes and chiefs whom the Nana
be regarded as nothing but uusub- had addressed, this man said : ** The
stautial surmise. But there is no- Nana wrote at intervals, two or three
thing in my mind more clearly sub- months previous to the annexation of
stantiated than the complicity of the Oude. But at first he got no au-
Nana Sahib in wide-spread intrigues swers. Nobody had any hope. After
before the outbreak of the mutiny, the annexation he wrote still more.

The concurrent testimony of wdt- and tlieii the Soukars of Lucknow
nesses examined in parts of the joined in his views, Maun Singh,
country widely distant from each who is the Chief of the Poorbeah, or
other takes this story altogether out Pooidusee, joined. Tlien the Sepoys-
of the regions of the conjectural. I began to make tajwiz (plans) among
speak only of the broad fact itself, themselves, and the Lucknow Sou-
IVith regard to the statement in the kars supported them. Until Oude
text, that the machinations of the was annexed, Nana Sahib did not get
Nana Sahib were much assisted by answers from any one; but when
the annexation ofOude,! give the fol- that occurred, many began to take
lowing, quantum valeat^ from the evi- courage and to answer him. The
dence of a Native emissary detained plot among the Sepoys first took
uiid examined in Mysore, in January, place— -the discontent about the

2 p 2

580

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTIKY.

A 7 .ril, 1B57. remote places, it cannot be questioned that, in the
condition of Oude itself after annexation there M as
that -which must have gladdened the heart of every
plotter against the State. Such men as Dundoo Punt
and Azim-ooUah Khan could not pass through the
streets of Lucknow without clearly seeing what was
coming. What they saw and what they heard,
indeed, pleased them so greatly, that they assumed a
bold and swaggering demeanour, which attracted the
attention of the English functionarie.s to whom they
were introduced. For they made no secret of their
•visit; but went about openly in the public streets,
with numerous attendants, and even sought the pre-
sence of the Commissioner. The Nana said that he
had come only to see the sights of Lucknow; so
Henry Lawrence received him kindly, aiid ordered
every attention to be sho-wn to him by the authorities
of the city. But his sojourn in Lucknow was brief,
and his departure sudden. He went without taking
leave of the English functionaries, saying that busi-
ness required his presence at Cawnpore.

^ifreased cartridges. Then answers one of the Lucknow Soukars.” The
began to pour in. Golab Siiigli, of former part of this statement may be
JummoOj was the first to send an readily accepted j the latter must be
ruiswcr. He said tliat he was ready received with caution. Further cx-
with men, money, and arms, and he tracts from this man's evidence will
sent money to Nana Sahib, through be found in the Appendix,

THE MONTH OF MAY.

581

CHAPTER VIL

THE MONTH fjj? <»'£Nl‘rt/LL nUUTSy OE AFEAIBS—STATE Or PEELING

AT THE IITPLE DEPOTS— THE RISING STORM IN OUDE— THE REVOLT AT
MEERUT— THE SEIZURE OP DELHI— MEASURES OP LORD CANNING— TUS
CALL POR SUCCOURS.

The month of Ma}’-, with its fiery heat and glare, May, ' 1857 .
and its arid dust-charged winds, found Lord Can-
ning in Calcutta watching eagerly, hut hopefully, the
progress of events, and the signs and symptoms of
the excitement engendered in men’s minds by the
great lie which had been so insidiously propagated
among them. From the multitude of conflicting
statements and opinions which reached him from dif-
ferent quarters, it was difficult to extract the truth ;
but taking a comprehensive view of aU that was
manifest to him, from the plains of Bengal to the
hills of the Himalayah, he could not discern in those
first days of May that the clouds were gathering
around him denser and blacker than before. If there
were any change, indeed, it was rather a change for
the brighter and the better. At Barrackpore there
had been no more overt acts of mutiny. The Native
regiments were doing their duty, sullenly perhaps,
but still quietly. At Dum-Dum the detachments in
the. Rifle dep6t, under the new system of drill, were
proceeding to baU practice without any visible signs
of discontent. It was hoped, indeed, that the troops in

582

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTKY.

May, 1857. the imhiediate neighbourhood of Calcutta were yield-
ing to the explanations and assurances which had
been given to them, and slowly returning to reason.
At the Rifle depots also in the Upper Country the
drill was quietly proceeding. At Sealkote, the detach-
ments from the Native regiments in the Punjab,
Regular and Irregular, were firing the new pieces
without a murmur. Sir John Lawrence went to
that station, at the be^nning of the month, “ to see
the new School of Musketry, as well as to judge with
respect to the feeling among the Sepoys;” and he
wrote to Lord Canning that all Avere “ highly pleased
with the new musket, and quite ready to adopt it
They already perceive how great an advantage it
will give them in mountain warfare.” The officers
assured him that no bad feeling had been shown, and
he himself “ could perceive no hesitation or reluctance
on the part of any of the Sepoys.”* From Umballah,
Oeneral Barnard wrote on the first day of the month,
that he had reported to Head-Quarters that so far
from any insubordinate feeling existing at that place,
he had reason to be satisfied with the patience, zeal,
and activity that the men had shown on the severe
night-picket work necessitated by the incendiary
fires. “ I have no reason,” he added, ‘‘ to accuse the
Sepoy of causing these fires — no overt act has been
elicited, and no instance of insubordination has oc-
curred. The musket practice has been resumed with
apparent good wdU and zeal. I have frequently at-
tended it myself, and I will answer for it that no ill
feeling exists in these detachments.”!

Thus it was that, in the first days of May, there

• Sir John Lawrence to Lord f Sir H. Barnard to Lord Can-
Caimiiig, May 4, 1857.— MS. Com- ning, May 1, 1857.— MS. Corre-
tpondmee. spondenee.

SrJIPTOilS OF A LULL.

583

was apparent to the eyes of the Governor-General Ma;?, 1867.
something like a lull ; and it seemed that at the Rifle
dep6ts, which wei’e the great central points of danger,
the ditficulty had been tided over. From Meerut,
too, no fresh tidings of distui’bance came. The men
of the Third Cavalry Avere being tried by Court-
martial; and it did not appear that any of their
comrades were about to folloAV their insubordinate
example. There Avere circumstances that rendered
it probable that the motives Avhich had driven these
men into mutiny Avere altogether of an exceptional
character. So Lord Canning, in the early part of
this month of Maj’, was able to direct his thoughts
to all parts of the country, and to fix them on many
topics of Indian gOA^ernment and administration,
as calmly and as philosophically as in the quietest
of times. He Avas corresponding Avith Lord Elphin-
stone on the subject of the Treaty Avith Persia and
the Expenses of the War ; Avith Lieutenant-Governor
Colvin on Education Grants and Female Schools, and
the Delhi Succession — ^little thinking hoAV that last
question Avould soon settle itself ; with Major David-
son, the Resident at Hyderabad, about the recogni-
tion of a successor to the Nizam (his Highness being
nigh unto death from a surfeit of prawns) ; with Sir
Richmond Shakespear, Resident at Baroda, on the
Finances of the Guicowar ; and Avith Colonel Durand,
the GoA-ernor-General’s Agent at Indore, about the
large amount of Native deposits in the Residency
Treasury. Indeed, the current business of Govern-
ment was but little interrupted There was no fear
in Government House.

But, althougn at this time the Governor-General
AA^as cheerful and hopeful, and believed that the
clouds of trouble would soon, by God’s proAudence,

584

OUIBIIEAK OF TUE MUTINY.

May, 1S57. be dispersed, be bad some especial causes of anxiety.
Tbe dawn of tbe month of May found the Thirty-
fourth Regiment at Barrackpore still awaiting its
sentence. The Jemadar of the Quarter-Guard, Issurec
Pandy, had been hanged on the 22nd of April, in
the presence of all the troops, at Barrackpore. He
had confessed his guilt on the scaffold, and with his
last breath had exhorted his comrades to be Ararned
by his example.* It was believed that this public
execution of a commissioned officer would have a
salutary effect upon the whole Native Army. But
the punishment of one man, though that punishment
were death, could not wipe out the offence of the
regiment, or vindicate the authority of the Govern,
ment. The great defect of Lord Canning, as a ruler
in troubled times, was an excess of conscientiousness.
The processes by which he arrived at a resolution
were slow, because at every stage some scruple of
honesty arose to impede and obstruct his conclusions.
On the score both of justice and of policy he doubted
whether the prompt disbandment of the Thirty-
fourth would be right. It was certain that some
companies were true to their colours, and he did not
clearly see that all the rest were faithless. He had
caused a searching inquiry to be made into the con-
dition of the regiment, and he had hoped, up to the
end of the third week of April, that all the require-

* ^ There were many erroneous in this wretclied manner, or he may
versions at the time of Issuree receive the same punisWent.^^ Tins
Tandy’s speech from the scaffold, is given on the authority of Colonel
Tiie words which he uttered, lite- Mitchell of the Nineteenth, who
rally translated, were these : “ Listen, brought the prisoner from the Quar-
Behaudur Sepoys. In such a manner ter-Guard of the Tifty-third to the
do not let any one act! I have be- foot of the gallows, and whose own
liaved in such a rascally way to the impressions were confirmed by the
Government, that I am about to re- three orderlies who accompanied
ceive my just punishment. Tliere- him.
fore, let no Behaudur Sepoy behave

DISBAXmiEXT OF THE TIIirai'-FOURTII.

585

ments of the case might he satisfied by the dismissal May, iss?
of some of the more patent otFenders. But the weight
of military authority was strongly in favour of dis-
bandment. General Hearsey, at Barrackpore, was
fully convinced that no measure short of this would
produce the desired effect ; and General Anson wrote
earnestly from Simlah urging the expediency of such
a course. The whole question was fully and anxiously
discussed in Council ; and at last, on the 30th of
April, Lord Canning recorded a minute declaratory
of I)is opinion that no penalty less general than dis-
bandment “ would meet the exigencies of the case,
or be effectual as an example.” But even then there
were doubts with respect to the men who were to be
exempted from punishment, and not until the 4th of
May was the discussion exhausted and the order
given for the disbandment of the regiment,*

Two days afterwards, in the presence of all thej)isbandment

V ' p j T ^jpi 1 * f

ti'oops at Barrackpore, of the detachments from Dum- fom-tL
Dum, and of the Eighty-fourth (Queen’s) from Chin-
surah, the seven companies of the Thirty-fourth, who
had witnessed the great outrage of the 29th of March,
were drawn up, before the sun had risen, to receive
/; their sentence. There was to be no mitigation of
their punishment, as in the case of the Nineteenth ;
so when they laid down their arms, the uniforms
which they had disgraced were stripped from their
backs, and they were marched out of cantonments
under an escort of Europeans. And thus a second
time the number of the guilty Thirty-fourth was
erased from the Army List ; and five hundred more

^ It is especially to be noted that should be exempted, as a faithful
a awestion arose as to whether the servant, or, on account of later leve-
Jemadar of the Mint-Guard, who Jations, condemned as a traitor. The
had apprehended the men of the decision was ultimately in his favour.

Second Grenadiers {ante^ pa»e 530),

586

Oi;iBRE.VK. OF THE MUTINY.

ILij, 1S57. desperate men, principally Brahmins and Rajpoots,
were cast adrift upon the world to Vvork out their
own schemes of vengeance. ■

OfiJe. In the quarter to which a large number of them
made their way as the Nineteenth had made their
way before them — in Oude, the signs of approaching
trouble increased. To no place, from one end of
India to another, did the mind of the Governor-
General, in this conjuncture, turn, with more painful
interest, than to this newly-annexed province, the
nursery of the Bengal Army. Henry Lawrence’s
letters to the Governor-General were wholly silent
on the subject of the Nana’s visit to Lucknow. But
they spoke of much that pressed heavily on his
mind. Recognising so many causes of popular dis-
content in Oude, and knowing well how large a por-
tion of the Native Army was drawn from that pro-
vince, he could not, at such a time, regard without
much anxiety the demeanour of the Sepoys around
him. There was one regiment at Luclaiow, whose
conduct, although it had been betrayed into no
overt act of insubordination, was of a suspicious,
almost of a threatening, character, and it seemed
desirable that it should be removed from the pro-
vince, There was no doubt that some of the
chief people of the city were tampering with its
allegiance ; and much danger might thei'efore be
averted if it could be removed to another station
beyond the hmits of the pro\':nce. The suggestion
was made, and Canning responded to it, giving full
authority to Henry Lawrence to move the tainted
regiment to Meerut. “ Let the Commander-in-Chief
know,” wrote the Governor-General, “ if you find it
necessary to send it away ; but do not Avait for any

further authority If you have regiments

that are reaUy untrustworthy, there must be no deli-

JIUTIXY AT LUCKXO^V.

587

cacy in the matter.” But before the letter sanction- May, 1857.
ing his proposal had arrived, Henry Lawrence had
thought long and deeply about the results of such a
measure ; and on the 1st of May he wrote to Lord
Canning, saying: “Unquestionably we should feel
better without the Forty-eighth, but I do not feel
confident that the feeling in the other regiments is
materially better ; and there is little doubt that the
Forty-eighth would not be improved by a move,
which is an important point of consideration in the
present general condition of the Army.” He was
right ; the removal of a single regiment could not
benefit Oude, but it might do injury elsewhere by
tainting other parts of the Army.

That other components of the Oude force were Mutiny in tlie
equally disaffected was presently apparent. On the
2nd of May, Captain Carnegie, who was Magistrate
of the city of Lucknow, and who had the superin-
tendence of the Police — a man, described by his im-
mediate superior as “ prudent and active, though so
quiet in manner, and implicitly to be relied upon”

— ^reported to Henry Lawrence that there had been
a strong demonstration against the cartridges in the
Seventh Regiment of Oude Irregulars. At first he
was fain to believe that the story might be exagge-
rated ; but there was soon undeniable evidence that
it was only too true. The regiment, which had been
in the King’s service, was posted at a distance of
some seven miles from Lucknow. A fortnight before,
the recruits of the regiment had commenced practice
with ball-cartridge, and had done their duty without
any manifestations of discontent. But by the end of
the month it wjis clear that the great fear, which was
travelling about the country, had taken possession of
their minds, and that they were on the very verge of
revolt. Whether they had been wrought upon by

588

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTIKY.

May, 1857.
Glide.

May 8.

emissaries from tlie city, or whether any of the dis-
banded men of the Nineteenth had, % this time,
found their way to Lucknow, is matter only of con-
jecture;* hut as the month of May dawned upon
them, they were ripe for rebellion — ^not only them-
selves prepared to resist, hut eager to incite others to
resistance. They had written a letter to the men of
the Forty-eighth, urging them to rise for their reli-
gion; and no soothing explanations from their of-
ficers could induce them to shake off the mistrust
which had fastened upon them. On the second day
of the month the Brigadier rode out with his Staff
to the Lines of the Seventh, and found them “as
obstinate as possible with regard to the cartridges.”!
Returning at nightfall to Lucknow, he wrote at once
to Lawrence, telling him the state of the regiment,
and adding, “ I think myself that this affair has
been a long time brewing.” The next morning!
brought with it no consolation. The Seventh were
in a worse state than before. They had been sullen
and obstinate on the preceding day. Now in a state

* It lias been stated that both the
Nineteenth and Thirty-fourth were
stationed at Lucknow at the time of
annexation ; and it was believed tliat
they were there first infected with
rebellion, Henry Lawrence wrote
that he had ascertained that in the
Nineteenth there must have been
neaily^ seven hundred Oude men.
By this time, they liad mostly found
their way back to tlieir native pro-
vince.

t The official report said that
the regiment “refused to bite the
cartridges when ordeied by its own
officers, and again by tlie Brigadier.”
How it happened "that, after the
ciiange introduced into the drill, the
Sepoys at Lucknow were ordered to
bite the cartridge at all, it is impos-
sible to say. This did not escape

Lord Canning, wlio, in a minute
written on the lOtli of May, said :
“ It appears that the revised in-
structions for the platoon exercise,
by wliicli the biting of the cartridge
is dispensed with, had not come into
operation at Luchnow. Explana-
tion of this sboulil be asked.” But
the time for explanation was past.
It was ascertained, however, that
the new drill instructions were sent
to^ the Oude Irregular force in the
middle of April.

X So difficult is the attainment of
perfect accuracy in an historical nar-
rative, that even Mr. Gubbins, whose
work on the Mutinies of Oude is the
best and safest authority extant,
says that these events, which he wit-
nessed himself, happened on Suiidav,
the 10th of May.

DISAMILXG OF TUE SEVEMH.

5S9

of feverish excitement, violent, desperate, they as- May, 1S57.
sumed a menacing attitude, and talked openly of
murdering their officers. It was obvious that a crisis
was approaching, and that no time was to be lost ;
so Henry Lawrence, when he heard that the regi-
ment Avas in this defiant and dangerous state, deter-
mined at once to disarm, and, if resisted, to destroy
it. On that evening he moved up an overAvhelming
force of all arms to the parade-ground of the Seventh.

The day Avas far spent AAffien he commenced the
march. “It Avas a ticklish matter,” he Avrote to Mr.

Colvin, “taking the Forty-eighth doAvn on Sunday
night; but I thought that they Avere safer in our
company than behind in cantonments. We had to
pass for two miles through the city ; indeed. Her
Majesty’s Thirty-second had four miles of it. I there-
fore hesitated as to moving after ; but the moon was
in its third quarter ; and the first blow is everything.

So off Ave started ; and concentrated from four
points, accomplishing the seven miles in about three
hours.”*

The moon had risen, bright in an unclouded sky,
on that Sabbath evening, when Henry LaAvrence,
accompanied by his Staff, appeared Avith the Brigade
before the Lines of the Seventh. The regiment was
draAvn up on parade, in a state of vague uncertainty
and bcAvilderment, not knoAving Avhat Avould come of
this strange nocturnal assembly. But when they
saAV the Europeans, the CaA'alry and the guns, taking
ground in their front and on their flanks, the Native
regiments being so placed as to destroy all hope of
their aiding their comrades, the mutineers knew that
their game was up, and that there Avould be death in

* Sir Henry .Lawrence to Mr. Colvin, Lucknow, May 6,.1S67. —
Correspondence,

5&0

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTIXY.

furtlier resistance. What might then have happened
if the course of events had not been determined by
an accident, cannot be distinctly declared. The mu-
tinous regiment had obeyed the word of command,
and some of the men had expressed contrition ; but
it happened that, by some mistake, an artilleryman
lighted a port-fire. The guns were pointed towards
the mutineers, and though Lawrence and his Staff
were posted between them and the Artillery, and
would probably have been swept aAvay by the first
round, the Sepoys of the guilty regiment believed
that the battery was about to open upon them. A
panic then seized the Seventh. First one man, then
another, broke away from his comrades and fled,
throwing down his arms as he went in the over-
Avhelming consternation of the moment; and pre-
sently great gaps appeared in the Line, and only a
remnant of the regiment was left to obey the orders
of the English officer. To these men, whilst the
Cavalry Avent in pursuit of the fugitives, Henry LaAV-
rence rode up ; and as they broke into exclamations
of “ Jye Coompanee Behaudur Ko !” — “ Victory to
the great Lord Company !” — ordered them to lay
doAvn their arms, and to strip off their accoutrements.
They obeyed Avithout hesitation ; and, an hour after
midnight, the Brigade had returned to LucknoAA’-,
carrying with it all the arms of the Seventh, and
escorting, under guards of the same force, the men
who had so lately borne them. In the criticaj state
of the other NatiAm regiments, it was not thought
Avise to divide the Europeans.

Next day Henry LaAvrence Avrote to the Governor-
General, saying, '“The coup is stated to haAm had
great effect in the city. But people go so far as to
tell me that the Forty-eighth last niglit abused the

FIRES LNf LUCKNOW.

59i

Seventh for running away, and said, that if they May, 1857
had stood, the Forty-eighth would not have fired. I
don’t believe one quarter of these reports.” But, al-
though there is always, in seasons of great popular
excitement, a vast amount of exaggeration afloat, and
Henry Lawrence, therefore, received with caution the
stories that were brought to him, he Avas not one to
disregard the signs of the times, and to close his eyes
to the danger's that were surrounding him. As time
advanced, these signs increased in signiflcance. Some
fifty of the ringleaders of the Seventh Irregulars
had been seized and confined, and a Court of In-
quiry had been assembled to investigate the causes of
the outbreak in that regiment. But little or nothing
had been elicited. As at Umballah, and other places,
the mouths of the Sepoys were sealed. They might
contend among themselves, but in their reticence,
when the English sought to probe their discontents,
they acted as one man. Words were not forthcoming,
but there was one form of expression, well known to
the Native soldiery in times of trouble, to Avhich they
betook themselves, as they had before betaken them-
selves elsewhere, and thus gave utterance to the strong
feelings within them. On the 7th of May, the Lines
of the Forty-eighth were burnt down. The fire com-
menced in the hut of the Soubahdar who had given
up the seditious letter addressed by the Seventh Irre-
gulars to the men of his regiment. There could be
no doubt that it was the Avork of an incendiary. On'
the foUoAving day, LaAvrence visited the scene of the
conflagration, and found the men outwardly civil and
respectful in their demeanour, but heavy and doAvn-
cast at the thought of their loss of property. It Avas
not easy to read the state of feeling which then ex-
isted in the Oude Array, so vague and varied was it ;

592

OUTBKEAK OB THE MUTINY.

Mar. 1357. but if any man could have xigbtly discerned ih
Ow'le. Henry Lawrence was tbat man. For be had free in-
tercourse with those who were most likely to be its
exponents, and had the gift, so rare among our
countrymen, of inspiring confidence in the breasts of
the people. After much communing with others and
with himself, he came to the conclusion that the.
strongest feeling that held possession of the Sepoy 's
mind -was a great fear, that this fear had long been
growing upon him, and that it had only culminated
in his belief in the story of the greased cartridges.*

Of one of these conversations a record has been left
in Lawrence’s handwriting. It is so significant of
the great fear that was then dominating the Army,
that I give the passage as it stands. “ I had a con-
versation,” he wrote to Lord Canning, on the 9 th of
May, “ with a Jemadar of the Oude Artillery for more
than an hour, and was startled by the dogged per-
sistence of the man, a Brahmin of about forty years
of age, of excellent character, in the belief that for ten
years past Grovernraent has been engaged in measures
for the forcible, or rather fraudulent conversion of all
the Natives. His argument was, that as such was the
case, and that as we had made our way through
India, won Bhurtpore, Lahore, &c., by fraud, so
might it be possible that we mixed bone-dust with
the grain sold to the Hindoos. When I told him of
our power in Europe, how the Russian war had
quadrupled our Army in a year, and in another it
could, if necessary, have been interminably increased,

* One of tlie earKest indications bj the Sepoys, and was believed to
of this alarm appeared at Lucknow, be a deliberate scheme to pollute
when, an Assistant-Surgeon in the them. Soon afterwards the house of
Hospital of the lorty-eighlh inad- the doctor was burnt to tlie <Tound
Tertently put a jihial of medicine to by the Sepoys of his rc'^imcut!

*as lips to test it. This was seen °

SYMPTOMS OP DISCONTEKl. j

59.3

and that in the same way, in six months, any re- May, 1857^
quired number of Europeans could be brought to
India, and that, therefore, we are not at the mercy
of the Sepoys, he replied that he knew that we had
plenty of men and money, but that Europeans are
expensive, and that, therefore, we wished to take
Hindoos to sea to conquer the world for us. On my
remarking that the Sepoy, though a good soldier on
shore is a bad one at sea, by reason of his poor food,

‘ That is just it,’ was the rejoinder. ‘ You want us
all to eat what you like that we maybe stronger, and
go everywhere.’ He often repeated, ‘ I tell you what
everybody says.’ But when I replied, ‘Fools and
traitors may say so, but honest and sensible men canr
not think so,’ he would not say that he himself did or
did not believe, but said, ‘I tell you they are like
sheep ; the leading one tumbles down, and aU the
rest roll over him.’ Such a man is very dangerous.

He has his full faculties, is a Brahmin, has served us
twenty years, knows our strength and our weakness,
and hates us thoroughly. It may be that he is only
more honest than his neighbours, but he is not the
less dangerous. On one only point did he ^ve us
credit. I told him that in the year 1846, I had
rescued a hundred and fifty Native children, left by
our army in Caubul, and that instead of making them
Christians, I had restored them to their relations and
friends. ‘ Yes,’ he replied, ‘ I remember well. I was
at Lahore.’ On the other hand, he told me of our
making Christians of children purchased during
famines. I have spoken to many others, of all ranks,
during the last fortnight; most give us credit for
good intentions ; but here is a soldier of our own,
selected for promotion over the heads of others,
holding opinions that must make him at heart a.

2 Q.

594

OUTBEEAK OF THE MUTINY.

May, 1857. traitor.” On tlae same day he wrote, in a similar
strain, to Mr. Colvin, concluding with a significant
hint to look well after the safety of the Forts in
Upper India.*

If these letters from the Chief Commissioner of
Oude had been read when written, they might have
suggested grave thoughts of impending danger ; but
when they reached their destinations, they came only
as commentaries upon the past, faint and feeble as
seen by the glaring light of terrible realities. The
Governor-General and his colleagues in the Supreme
Council were discussing the conduct of the mutinous
Oude re^ment, and the measure of punishment
which should be meted out to it. On the 10th of
lyiay Lord Canning and Mr. Dorin recorded minutes
on the subject. The Governor-General declared for
disbandment, housed to a vigorous expression of
opinion by this last manifestation of a growing evil,
the senior member of Council wrote— and wrote well
The sooner this epidemic of mutiny is put a stop
to the better. Mild measures , won’t do it. A severe

example is wanted I am convinced that

timely severity wiU be leniency in the long run.”
On the same day. General Low recorded a minute,
in which he expressed an opinion that “ probably the
main body of the regiment, in refusing to bite the
cartridge, did so refuse, not from any feeling of dis-
loyalty or disaffection towards the Government or
their officers, but from an unfeigned and sincere
dread that the act of biting them would involve a
serious injury to their caste.” On the 11th, Mr.

* In the letter to Mr. Colvin, Sir ceal not only that he and all others
Henry Lawrence says that the Je- saw no absurdity in the
inadar “went over all our anti- atta belief, but that he considered
Hindoo acts of the last ten years, in- we were quite up to such a dodge/
diuding Gaol-Messing, the General- Correspondehoe,

'Service Oath/&c., and id not con-

THE ODTBEEAE AT MEERUT.

J95

Grant and Mr. Peacock placed on record their opi- May, 1867 .
nions, that it might be better to wait for fuller in-
formation before issuing the final orders of Govern-
ment. On the 12th. the oflBlce-boxes were asram

• O

passing from house to house; but with the papers
then circulated, there went one, small in size, scanty
in words, but, although perhaps scarcely appreciated
at the time, of tremendous significance. “ It is to
be hoped,” wrote Mr. Dorin, “that the news from
Meerut (in the telegraphic message from Agra in this
box) is not true.” But it was true ; yet, with all its
terrors, only a small part of the truth.

The little paper, then, on that 12th of May, tra- The outbrens
veiling from house to house in the oflS.ce-box, was Ma^iorii &7
a telegraphic message from Lieutenant-Governor
Colvin, announcing to Lord Canning that the great
military station of Meerut was in a blaze, that the
Cavalry had risen in a body, and that every Euro-
pean they had met had been slain by the insurgents.

There was something terribly significant in the very
form of this message. The Government at Agra had
received no official tidings of the events that had oc-
curred at Meerut. But a lady at the former place,
who had been about to pay a visit to her friends at
Meerut, had received a message from her niece, who
was sister of the postmaster there, warning her not
to attempt the journey, as the Cavalry had risen.*

* The fpllowing were the words find near the Lines. If aunt intends
of the message: 11, 1857. — starting to-morrow evening, please

Last night, at nine o’clock, a tele- detain her from doing so, as the van
graph message was received here hj has been prevented from leaving the
a lady from her niece, sister of the station.’ No later message has been
postmaster at Meerut, to the follow- received, and the communication by
iiig effect ; * The Cavalry have risen, telegram has been interrupted ; how,
setting fire to their own houses and not known. Any intelligence which
severju officers’ hou?^es, besides hav- may reach will be sent on imme-
ing killed and wounded all Euro- diately .” — JPudlisAed Correspondence,
pean officers and soldiers they could Farlmmntary Papers^

2 q2

596

OUTBEEAK OP THE MUTINY.

May, 1857. This "was the last message despatched. Before the
authorities could send intelligence of what had hap-
pened, the telegraph-wires were cut by the insur-
gents.

The week of The news, therefore, which now reached Agra,

telegrams. thence communicated to Calcutta, was of a

vague, fragmentary character. Scattered facts welled
up from uncertain sources, and were passed on from
one station to another, suggestive rather than expres-
sive, always indicating something more terrible in the
background than the truth actually revealed. Not
till some time afterwards was the whole truth appa-
rent to the Governor-General, and therefore not
now do I fin up the outlines of the story. The
week that followed the 12th of May was a week of
telegrams. The electric wires were continually flash-
ing pregnant messages from North to South, and from
South to North. That the Sepoys at Meerut had
risen, was certain from the first. Then news came
that they held some part of the road between Meerut
and Delhi. Then, little by little, it transpired that
the Meerut mutineers had made their way in a body
to the Imperial City, and that the Delhi regiments
had fraternised with them. A message from Agra,
despatched on the 14th, stated, on the authority of a
letter from the King of Delhi, that the town and fort
and his 0 A^^l person were in possession of the insur-
gents ; and it was added that Fraser, the Commis-
sioner, and many other English gentlemen and ladies,
had been murdered. Then, at last, it became appa-
rent that the King himself had cast in his lot with
the insurgents, that the rebel standard had been
hoisted in the palace of the Mogul, that Englishmen
and Englishwomen had been ruthlessly massacred in
the streets of the city, and that the mutiny of a few

, STHE SEIZURE OF DELHI.

597

regiments, by thus concentring at Delhi, was be^n- May, i8S7-=
ning to simulate a national rebellion.

Never since, a century before, the foundation of our
great Indian Empire had been laid by the conquest of
Bengal, had such tidings as these been brought to
the council-chamber of the English ruler. The little
cloud no bigger than a man’s hand, which had risen
in the first month of the new year, and had been
growing in its density and darkness until it had over-
shadowed the heavens, was now discharging its tem-
pestuous terrors upon us. There was little before
the eyes of Lord Canning but the one naked fact of
the junction of the Meerut and Delhi troops, and the
proclamation of the restored empire of the Mogul.

With a feeling of wondering anxiety he awaited,
aU through that terrible week in May, the details
which seemed as though they would never come, and
the explanations of all that seemed so inexplicable to
him. Most of aU, he marvelled what our people had
been doing, or not doing in this conjuncture, that
such a post as Delhi, scarcely equalled in military,
wholly unequalled in political importance, should thus
in an hour have been wrested from their grasp. It
seemed incredible that with a regiment of British
Cavalry at Meerut, and the largest body of Artillery
in the country gathered there at its head-quarters,
such a catastrophe as this should have occurred. Was
there no one, he asked, to do with the Carabineers
and the Horse Artillery what GiUespie, half a century
before had done, with his Dragoons and galloper-
guns? But if such were the result in places where
our English officers had Cavalry and Artillery to aid
them, how would it fai:e with them at stations where
no such help was to be had ? There was no hope
now that ' the: conflagration would not spread from

598,

OUIBKEAK or THE MUTINt.

Maj, 1857. cantonment to cantonment ; no hope now that the
whole country would not soon be in a blaze.

Measures of So Canning arose, and with his still, calm face,
nInV confronted the dire calamity. A braver heart than
his never beat in a human breast. Happy was it for
the nation that in him, to whom its honour wns con-
fided in that conjuncture, there was a resolute man-
hood of the finest, most enduring temper. Many
thoughts pressed upon him, but dominant over all
was a strong sense of the paramount duty of main-
taining before all men a serene aspect and a confident
demeanour. There was great work to be done,
nothing less than the salvation of an empire ; and
with a solemn sense of his responsibility, he girded
himself up for the conflict, knowing in how great
a measure the deliverance of his countrymen de-
pended, under God’s good providence, upon their
faith in his constancy and courage. He saw clearly
that there was a tremendous danger, and he knew
that the resources immediately at his command were
wholly insufl5.cient to enable him to cope with it;
but even those who were nearest to his person never
saw him quail for a moment, as he calculated the
means and appliances of defence that could at once
be brought into action, and those which might be
summoned from a distance.

It was no time for lamentation ; else he might have
lamented that India, by a series of adverse circum-
stances, had been so stripped of European troops that
now the whole country, with the exception of the
frontier province of the Punjab, was lying naked and
defenceless, without means of raising any barriers of
resistance against the flood of rebellion that was
pouring over Hindostan. He had lifted up his voice
agamst the. system, which placed it in the power

SOURCES OF consolation;

599

of England, by giving to India either too much May, 1867.
or too little of its manhood, to sacrifice the interests
of the dependency.* He had resisted, only a little
time before, an attempt to carry oif some of the few
English regiments at his disposal, to take a part in
certain military operations against the Government
of China, with which India had no concern. It had
cost him much to send so many regiments to Persia;
but that was a call to which he had been bound to
respond, and happily now the emergency was past.

All that he had said by way of warning had been
more than verified by the event ; but it was a time
for looking forward, not for looking back, so he
began to reckon up his available succours, and forth-
with to summon them to the capital.

In the midst of all his tribulation there were some
sources of unspeakable comfort. Whilst the clouds
were thickening above him, before the great out-
burst, he had learnt with joy and gratitude that the
war with Persia had been brought to a close. Outram
had done his work rapidly arid well. I cannot now
pause to speak of his successes. What he did on the
shores of the Persian Gulf must be narrated in an-
other place. It is enough to say that Persia, alarmed
by our demonstrations on the coast, and anticipating
an advance into the interior of the country, thought
that negotiation was better than war, acceded to our
demands, and concluded, at Paris, a treaty with the
British Government. The expedition which had gone

* **The interests of India,” lie liere for the purpose of meeting
wrote on April 22nd, “ do not always exigencies elsewhere. Such a dimi-
make themselves heard in England, nntion was made in 1854 by with-
when other important matters are holding two regiments which h^ye

uppermost; and I am opposed to not yet been given, although six
putting into the hands of the Go- regiments have been sent out of
iernment at home an increased India td Persia.” — MS, Carresjpon^
power to diminish our main strength ence of Lord Canning,

600

OTJTBBEAK OF THE MOTINY.

May, 1857. forth from Bombay, was, therefore, returning to that
Presidency; and a word from the Governor-Gene-
ral would summon it, as fast as steam could bring
it, to his aid. This was his first thought, when
the seizure of Delhi confirmed aU his worst appre-
hensions of the perilous want of European troops.
Then, from these Persian succours, he turned with joy
and gratitude not less profound, to the thought that
English troops were speeding to China; that the
.arrogance and insolence of the Chinese Government
having provoked our chastisement, an expedition had
been fitted out under the conduct of a civil and a
military chief, and was then, perhaps, at the very
•point of its journey at which it might most readily
be -wrested from its ori^al purpose, and diverted
into another and more necessitous channel. Rightly
•taking the measure of the two exigencies, and never
-doubting for a moment what the great interests of
'the nation demanded in that conjuncture, he pre-
sently determined to call these troops to his aid. The
chastisement of China could wait ; the salvation of
India could not;* and so he resolved, even at thfe
-risk of frustrating the cherished designs of the Go-
wemment in England, to caU upon Elgin and Ash-
bumham to suspend their operations, and to send
.him the present help that he so much needed. It

* I did not think, -when I wrote stopped at Singapore. Yeli maj
,-these words, that I had done more wait ; but Bengal, with its stretch
than express the natural feeling in of seven hundred and fifty miles
Lord Canning’s breast at that time; from Barrackpore to Agra, guarded
but I have since found that he gave by nothing but the lOth Queen’s,
'utterance almost to the very words : cannot wait, if the flame should
‘‘I have sent an officer,” he wrote to spread. And who shall say that it
rthe Commander-in-Chief, “to Galle will not? No precaution against
by the mail to meet A^hbumham, such a contingency can be too
and I hope Elgin, with an earnest re- great .” Corresjiondence of L^rte
.'qnest for the first use of the regi- Canning^
ments bound to China, if they can be

THE CALL FOR SUCCOURS.

601

was a great responsibility, but be took it without a May, issr
moment’s hesitation on himself ; and he thanked
God, from the very depths of his heart, that by a
providential dispensation this succour, in the very
crisis of his necessities, had been placed within his
reach.

There were thus, in the peculiar circumstances of
the moment, some sources of consolation, some good
promise of relief over and above that which was to
be sought in the normal condition of the empire
under his charge. But it would take time to gather
up the strength of these Persian and Chinese expe-
ditions, and there were some available European
troops more nearly at hand. It was another happy
accident that at this time the Eighty-fourth Regiment,
which had been summoned from Pegu in March, was
still in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. The long-
delayed disbandment of the guilty companies of the
Thirty-fourth had not been carried into effect before
the 6th of May ; and the regiment had been de-
tained until after the execution of the sentence. It
seemed then that there was no further necessity for
its presence in Bengal, but the arrangements for its
return to Pegu were still incomplete, when the disas-
trous tidings from Upper India came to dissipate all
thought of its departure. From the quarter whence
it had come another English regiment might be
drawn. The Thirty-fifth was stationed partly at
Rangoon, partly at Moulmein ; and a steamer was de-
spatched to gather up the detachments and to bring
them with all speed to Calcutta. At the same time,
the telegraph carried to Madras a requisition to hold
the Forty-third Foot and the Madras Fusiliers ready
for immediate embarkation; and a trusted officer
was sent on board the mail-steamer to Ceylon, with

6 ' 02 , OUTBREAK OF THE MUTKY.

iEiy, 1S57. an urgent request to the Governor to send him all
the European troops he could spare.

Whilst thus every effort was strained to bring Eu-
ropean troops .from the southern and eastern coasts,
the Governor-General was intent also on the organisa-
tion of measures for the concentration of the strength
already at his disposal upon the points most exposed
to danger. With this object, ever}'^ available river-
steamer was taken up for the conveyance of troops
to the Upper Provinces, and the quicker but more
limited means of locomotion afforded by wheeled car-
riages was resorted to for the conveyance of small
detachments into the interior. But it was not, in
the crisis of this first peril, from the South, but from
the North, that the stream of conquest was to be
poured down upon the great centre of rebellion.
It was not to. be doubted that General Anson, whom
the news of the rising at Meerut and the seizure of
Delhi must have reached at Simlah as soon as it
reached Lord Canning at Calcutta, was doing all that
could be done to despatch troops to the seat of the
revolt. The telegraph, therefore, expressed only the
confidence of Government that the Commander-in-
Chief was bringing do^vn to the plains the European
regiments on the hills. But the main reliance of the
Governor-General in this extremity was upon the
military resources of the Punjab. Though all the
rest of the empire was denuded of Eiiropean troops,
there was no lack of this material strength in the
gr^t frontier province conquered from the Sikhs.
Moreover, it was believed that the Sikhs themselves
would be eager to follow their English commanders
to the siege and pillage of the renowned city of the
Moguls. So, whilst a message went to Kurrachee, in
Scinde, directing the Commissioner to send an Eng-
lish regiment to the Punjab to replace any that it

, MEASUBES or DEFENCE.

603

might be found necessary to despatch from that pro- May^' iS57r
vince to the Lower Provinces, another went to Mr.

Colvin, at Agra, saying, “ Send word as quickly as
possible to Sir John Lawrence that he is to send
down such of the Punjab regiments and European
regiments as he can safely spare. Every exertion
must be made to regain Delhi. Every hour is of
importance. General Hewitt has been ordered to
press this on the Commander-ia-Chief. If you find
it necessary, you may apply, in the Governor-Gene-
ral’s name, to the Eajah of Pateeala and the Eajah
of Jheend for troops.” And he added, with that
union of kindliness and sagacity which made him at
all times liberal of his encouragement to his Lieute-
nants, “ I thank you sincerely for what you have so
admirably done, and for your stout heart.”* The
praise, too, was well deserved. Colvin, at that time,
had done aU that could be done to help others at a
distance, and to maintain the confidence of those
around him, and he had strenuously exerted himselt
to forward to the Governor-General, by telegraph
and by letter, all the tidings that had made their way
to Agra.f “I have fairly taken upon myself,” he
wrote to Lord Canning on the 15th of May, “ the
position of Commander -in -Chief here. The ar-
rangements are now on the point of completion, and
our position may be regarded as safe. There has
been a thorough co-operation and the most excellent

* In alettertoMr. VemoE Smith
of about the same date, Lord Can-
ning says : “ South of Delhi, Colvin
at Agra is engaffed iu keeping the
roads quiet, collecting troops from
Gwalior (Scindiali has come forward
loyally), and encouraging his own
native garrison to fidelity. He is
confident of keeping them straight,
mid he deserves to succeed. His
courage and judgment arc beyond

praise.” — MS. Cormpondetice of Lori
Canning,

•f* The importance of this service,
at a time when communication both
by Tost and Telegraph was so greatly
interrupted, can hardly be over-esti-
mated. The Commander-in-Chiefs
letters of the 14th and 16th of May
did not reach Calcutta before the,
7tli of June.

604

OOTBEEAK OP THE MDTESY.

May, 1857 . Spirit atQongst US. Scindiah and Bhurtporc will he
heartily with us against the new dynasty of the
House of Timour. I shall rouse the Rajpoot States
to arrest the flight of the mutineers \vestward, when
they are driven out of Delhi. The horrible murdei-s,
you will see, have been chiefly by Mahoincdan
troopers of the Third Cavalry. There must be a fit
and fearful expiation for such atrocities.”

But for this fit and fearful expiation Lord Canning
knew too well that the time had not yet come. The
struggle now w'as for bare life. For this he had
done all that could be done, with the scanty means
at his own disposal. “The two points to which I
am straining,” he -ivrote to the Indian Minister at
home, “ are the hastening of the expulsion of the
rebels from Delhi, and the collection of Europeans
here to be pushed up the country.” But not a day
was to be lost in summoning that ulterior aid, by
which not only was the safety of the empire to be
secured, but the honour of the nation vindicated by
the infliction of just retribution upon our enemies.
The succours from Bombay he was sure to obtain ;
and there was something exhilarating in the thought,
at a time when India had need of all her heroes, that
Outram would come wdth them. How different
would it have been if those regiments had been still
Arrest of the engaged in the Persian Gulf I But he could not cal-
Chwa eipedi- ^ulate with the same amount of certainty upon the
succours from the Eastern seas; he could not be
certain that Lord Elgin would respond to his appeal.
All that he could do was to throw the whole earnest-
ness of his nature into that appeal, and to take upon
himself the full responsibility of the diversion. So
he wrote ofllcially, as the Governor-General of India,
to Lord Elgin, and he wrote privately to bim as an

jtEEEST OP THE CHINA EXPEDITION.

605

old companion and friend. In the public letter, after May, 1S57.
setting forth in emphatic language the dangers by
which our empire in India was surrounded, he con-
tinued : “ I place the matter briefly before your Lord-
ship ; but I hope clearly enough to enable you to
come to a ready decision. I will add, that I am
anxious to bear the whole responsibility of all the
consequences of turning aside the troops from China
to India. But I beg your Lordship to believe that,
in saying this, I am not influenced by any thought
that whatever may be the course for which your
Lordship’s wise judgment shall decide, you will need
any help from me in vindicating it to her Majesty’s
Government.”

More earnest and emphatic stUl was his private May W.issr.
letter ; not a word of it should be omitted : “ My
dear Elgin, — I wish I could give you a more cheerful
and acceptable greeting than you will find in the
letter by which this is accompanied. As it is, you
Avfll not bless me for it, but the case which I have
before me here is clear and strong. Our hold of
Bengal and the Upper Provinces depends upon the
turn of a word — a look. An indiscreet act or irri-
tating phrase from a foolish commanding of&cer at
the head of a mutinous or disaffected company,
may, whilst the present condition of things at Delhi
lasts, lead to a general rising of the Native troops in
the Lower Provinces, where we have no European
strength, and where an army in rebellion would have
everything its own way for weeks and months to
come. We have seen within the last few days what
that way would be. I cannot shut my eyes to the
danger, or to the urgent necessity under which I lie,
to collect every European that can carry arms and
aid to the Government of India in the event of such

606

OT3TBEEAK OF THE MUTIOT.

May. 1857. a crisis. I do not want aid to put down Llie Meerut
and DelM rebek ; that will be done easily, as soon us
the European troops can converge upon Delhi, but
not sooner. Meanwhile, every hour of delay — un-
avoidable delay — is an encouragement to the dis-
affected troops in other parts ; and if any one of tlui
unwatched regiments on this side of Agra shouhl
take heart and give the word, there is not a fort, or
cantonment, or station in the plains of the Ganges
that would not be in their hands in a fortnight. It
would be exactly the same in Onde. No help that
you could give me would make us safe against this,
because it cannot arrive in time. The critical mo-
ments are now, and for the next ten or twelve days to
come. If we pass through them without a spread of
the outbreak, I believe all will go well If we do not,
the consequences will be so frightful, that any neglect
to obtain any possible accession of strength whereby
to shorten the duration of the reign of terror which
will ensue, would be a crime. If you send me troops,
they shall not be kept one hour longer than is abso-
MS Corre- needed. If you come with them yourself, you

spondenoe. shall be most heartily welcome.”

With this letter went another to General Ashburn-
ham, who commanded the troops of the China expe-
dition ; and the steamer, which carried the bearer of
these important missives to GaUe, bore also letters
from the Governor-General to the Chairman of the
Court of Directors and the President of the Board
of Control, calling upon them immediately to send
out reinforcements from England. “Now let me
beg your attention and support,” he wrote to Mr.
Mangles, “to a proposal which goes to you by the
mail for the immediate raising of three European
regiments for BengaL No sane man will doubt tibat

HEASTJRES OF MOEAL FORCE. 607 -

■mucli of increase to our European force is wanted, May, lai?
and that the want should be supplied with as little
delay as possible is obvious from the present expo-
sure of our weak points. I do not ask for an aug-
mentation to the established number of Queen’s
troops, because for permanent purposes I much prefer
an addition to the Company’s Army ; and for the
e.xigencies of the moment no reinforcement, except
that of the China regiments, would avail. But I do
beg that you will move the Government to make up
the complement of Queen’s troops, irrespectively of
those which now or hereafter may come to us from
China. Do not let the supply of the missing regi-,
ments depend upon the turn of affairs in China, but
let the gap be filled up at once.”* In the same
strain he wrote to Mr. Vernon Smith, looking rather
to any aid that might be sent him from England, as
a means of preventing the recurrence of like disasters
in the future, than of combating those which had
already tarisen.

W hils t the first efforts of the Governor-General ^o^aKorce
were thus directed towards the pressing duty of ex-
tinguishing, by sheer animal strength, the fires that
had been kindled in Upper India, he was endeavour-
ing also to prevent by moral means the flames from
spreading to parts of the country not yet in a blaze..

It was plain that a great fear, bom of a terrible mis-
apprehension, was driving the soldiery to madness.

Might not something, then, be done — might not some'
authoritative declaration be put forth by Govern-'
ment, solemn and irresistible in its denials of the im-
puted treachery, to pacify men’s minds, and to cast
out from them the foul suspicions which were turn- ■
ing loyal soldiers into rebels and murderers? It

• * Lord Canning to Mr. Mangles, May 19, 1857. — M/S. Corresj^ndence,

OUTBEEAK OE THE MUTINY,.

6oa

May, 1857. Tvas true that they had been told this before by the
GoTernor-General, by the Commander-in-Chief, by
Generals of Division, and Regimental Comnuindants ;
but these appeals had been of local character and
limited influence, and it was thought that something
might yet be done by a general Proclamation ad-
dressed to the whole Army, and distributed through-
out the country. It was not doubted, that whatso-
ever might have been the external agencies employed
to keep alive this perilous excitement, there was at
the bottom, of it, in the breasts of the Sepoys, a
deeply-rooted fear for the sanctity of their religion
and the purity of their caste. If they could once be
persuaded to believe that the British Government
had never meditated any injury or offence to the re-
ligious or social prejudices of the people, there might
be a return to quietude and to reason. It was wise,
at least, to make one more trial. So a Proclamation
was issued, setting forth that the Governor-General
knew that endeavours had been made to persuade
Hindoos and Mussulmans, both soldiers and civil sub-
jects, that their religion was openly as well as secretly
threatened by acts of the Government, who were be-
lieved to be seeking by various ways to entrap them
into loss of caste for purposes of their own ; but that
they' had never yet deceived their subjects, and they
now, therefore, called upon all men to refuse their
belief to the seditious lies of designing traitors, who
were leading good men to their ruin. Translated
into the vernacular, this Proclamation was sent to
the military authorities to be distributed anaong the
soldiery in all parts of the country, whilst the words
of it were telegraphed to the Lieutenant-Governor at
Agra, with emphatic instructions to “ dissemmate it
in every town, village, bazaar, and serai.” “ It is

REVAEDS AND PUNISHMENTS^

609

for the people as well as for the troops.” It was yet May, 1857
hoped that it might hear the good fruit of a return
to order and tranquillity.*

At the same time, it appeared tc the Governor-
General to he in the highest degree important to arm
the military authorities with new powers both for the
prompt reward of good and loyal soldiers, and the
prompt punishment of mutineers. The first might
he done hy a simple order of the Government. The
latter required the interposition of the Legislature.

So an act was passed to facilitate the trial and punish- May 16 .
ment of otfences against the articles of war for the
Native Army, hy which commanding officers of Divi-
sions, Brigades, and Stations, were authorised to as-
semble general and other Courts-martial, and to pro-
ceed to carry sentence into effect ■without reference
to Head-Quarters. In such an emergency as had
then arisen, Centralisation could not stand its ground.

So whilst increased power was thus given to com-
manding officers to overawe rebellion, increased
power to encourage loyalty and good conduct was
delegated to them and to certain high civil and poli-
tical functionaries. They were empowered to pro-
mote Native soldiers and non-commissioned officers
on the scene of their good deeds, and to confer upon

^ It has been often said that this llie mutiny in the Madras Army. It
Proclamation, which will be found is, however, very doubtful whether
in the Appendix, ought to have been such manifestoeis have any effect
issued at an earlier period. Colonel upon the Native mind, when once
Birch advised the Governor-General, any popular belief of the intentions
when the excited state of the Native of Government has taken fast hold
soldiery first became apparent, to of it. 1 have already observed, that
issue a proclamation of this kind, those who entertain a conviction
and Lord Canning afterwards frankly that the Government have formed a
expressed his regret that he had not deliberate design to trick the people
taken the advice of his military se- out of their religion, are not likely to
cretary. On turning back to page find any difficulty in believing that
243, the reader will perceive that a the issue of a lying proclamation is
similar delay in issuing a sedative a part of the plot,
proclamation occurred in 1806, after

2 B

610

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTIJsT.

May, 1857.

General
Order,
May 19.

them the “ Order of Merit,”* “ in order that the re-
ward for eminent gallantry, loyalty, and good con-
duct might he prompt, and might be conferred on
the soldier m the sight of his comrades.” But no
proclamations and general orders — ^nothing that the
Legislature could decree or the Executive Govern-
ment publish — ^no words that men could utter, in
that extremity, could avail to arrest the fury of the
storm that was bursting over their head. It was too
late for words, for none would hear. It was left to
the English only to strike.

Thus Canning did all that could be done, and
waited for the issue — waited, fearfuUy and hopefully,
for tidings of new disasters in one direction, and of
coming succours from another. As he thus waited
and watched, and pondered new details of the great
rising, which every day added something to the
clearness and completeness of the story, there were
times when he felt in his inmost heart that there
were no better resources than a few brave hearts
and a few strong heads upon whose courage and
coolness he could rely. It must be said, sorrowfully,
and I would fain not say it, but History admits of no
such reservations, that Lord Canning felt bitterly
that, with some few honourable exceptions, the Eng-
lish ofScers at the Presidency were not giving bin
the moral support which, in such a crisis, would have
been so grateful and refreshing to him, and for which
truly he had a right to look. It is impossible to
describe his mortification. Where he had hoped to
see strength he saw only weakness. Men whom he
thought to see sustaining and encouraging others by

* Authority in this latter respect Western Provinces, and to the Cliief
■was confined to the Lientenant- Commissioners in Oude and the
Governor of Bengal hnd the North- Punjab.

DANGEEOUS ALARMISTS.

611

their own resolute bearing and their cheerfulness of May, 18?. 7.
speech, went about from place to place infecting their
friends with their own despondency, and chilling the
hearts which they should have warmed by their ex-
ample. Such a spectacle as this was even more
painful than the tidings of disaster and death which
came huddling in from all parts of the country.

No one knew better, and no one more freely acknow-
ledged that the men of whom he complained were
“ brave enough with swords by their sides.” They
would have faced death for their country’s good with
the courage of heroes and the constancy of martyrs ;
but strong as they would have been in deeds, they
were weak in words, and they went about as pro-
phets of evil, giving free utterance to all their
gloomiest anticipations, and thus spreading through
all the strata of English society at the capital the
alarm which a more confident demeanour in the
upper places might have arrested. And so strong
was Lord Canning’s sense of the evil that had arisen,
and that might arise from this want of reserve, that
he wrote specially to the authorities in England to
receive with caution the stories that were likely to be
sent home in the private letters which the mail was
about to carry from Calcutta.

But the shame with which he beheld the failure of Harris and
some of his coirntrymen at Calcutta, made him turn
with the greater pride and the greater confidence
towards those who were nobly seconding his efforts
from a distance. The Governors of Madras and of
Bombay, Harris and Elphinstone, had responded to
his appeals, and without any selfish thoughts of their
own wants, any heed of dangerous contingencies at
home, were sending him the succours he so much
needed; and he was profoundly grateful for their

2 11 2

612

OUTBEEAK OE THE MUTIKI.

May. 1857.

The Law-
icaces.

aid. The promptitude with which they responded to
the call for help was something almost marvellous
The electric telegraph might fail us in some parts, but
in others it did its work well. On the 18th of May,
Canning knew that the Madras Fusiliers wore already
embarking, and had thanked Harris by telegraph for
his “ great expedition.” On the 22nd he learnt that
the first instalment of the troops from Persia had
reached Bombay, and that a steamer had already
started for Calcutta with a wing of the Sixty-fourth
Queen’s. The fire-ship was doing its work as well as
the lightning-post.

But although there was to the Governor-General
great consolation in the thought that he would lack
no material or moral support that Harris and Elphin-
stone could give him, it was, in a conjuncture so im-
minent, to the individual characters of men actually
confronting the dangers which threatened the empire,
that he looked with the most eager anxiety. And
there were no points to which he turned his eyes with
a keener interest than to those two great provinces,
the history of the annexation of which I have written
in the early part of this book, the great provinces of
the Punjab and of Oude. It was from Oude that so
large a part of the Bengal Army had been drawn ;
it was in Oude, the last of our acquisitions, that the
animosities and resentments born of the great revo-
lution we had accomplished were festering most
freshly; it was in Oude that we had to contend
with the reviving energies of a dynasty scarcely yet
extinct, and an aristocracy in the first throes of its
humiliation. AU this Lord Canning distinctly saw.
It was in the Punjab that aU external dangers were
to be encoimtered; it was from the Punjab that Delhi
was to be recovered. There was consolation in the

THE LAWEENCES.

613

thought that only a few months before the good
offices of Dost Mahomed had been purchased m the
manner most likely to secure his neutrality. But
death might, any day, remove the old Ameer from
the scene ; there would, in such a case, be internal
convulsions, out of which would probably arise an
invasion of our frontier by one contending faction
or another: and, therefore, much as troops were
needed below, a still greater danger might be in-
curred by weakening the force on the frontier. In
other parts of the country there might be merely a
military mutiny; but in Oude and the Punjab the
Government was threatened with the horrors of a po-
pular rebellion, and the embarrassments of a foreign
war.

But if there were much trouble and anxiety in
these thoughts, they had their attendant consolations.
Let what might happen in Oude and the Punjab, the
Lawrences were there. The Governor-General had
abundant faith in them both ; faith in their courage,
their constancy, their capacity for command ; but,
most of all, he trusted them because they coveted
responsibility. It is only from an innate sense of
strength that this desire proceeds ; only in obedience
to the unerring voice of Nature that strong men press
forward to grasp what weak men shrink from pos-
sessing. Knowing this, when, on the 16 th of May,
Henry Lawrence telegraphed to the Governor-Ge-
neral, “ Give me plenary military power in Oude ;
I win not use it unnecessarily,” not a moment was
lost in flashing back the encouraging answer, “ You
have full military powers. The Governor-General
will support you in everything that you think ne-
cessary.”

With John Lawrence it was less easy to commu-

May, 1857

614

OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY.

Maj, 1857. nicate. A short time before the outbreak of the
mutiny, the Chief Commissioner of the Punjab,
whose health had been sorely tried by incessant Avork,
had proposed to the Governor-General to occupy a
part of the approaching hot weather in a tour
through Cashmere, but Lord Canning, on political
grounds, had discouraged the proposal ; for Ghokb
Singh lay dying, and it was believed that such a visit
to the dominions of the Maharajah would be asso-
ciated in men’s minds with some ulterior project of
their annexation. John Lawrence, therefore, had
happily not gone to Cashmere. When the news of
the outbreak at Meerut reached the Punjab he was,
on his way to the Murree Hills, at Rawul-Pindee ;
and thence, having first telegraphed to them both, he
wrote, on the 13 th of May, to the Governor-General
and the Commander-in-Chief, Nine days afterwards
Lord Canning received the missive which had been
addressed to him, together with a copy of the Commis-
sioner’s earnest appeal to Anson to be up and doing.
In the former, Lawrence urged upon the Governor-
General the expediency of raising for immediate ser-
vice a large body of Sikh Irregulars. “ Our European
force in India,” he wrote, “is so small, that it may
gradually be worn down and destroyed. It is of the
highest importance, therefore, that we should increase
our Irregular troops. ... In the event of an emer-
gency, I should like to have power to raise as far as
one thousand Horse ; I will not do this unless abso-
lutely necessary.” Five days before this letter had
reached Calcutta, Lord Canning had telegraphed his
consent to the proposal, adding, “ You will be sup-
ported in every measure that you think necessary for
safety.” He was unstinting in his expressions of
confidence to those who deserved it.

SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.

615

Those were days when the best men stood upon the May, issf.
least ceremony, and if they had a suggestion to offer
to Government, offered it with the full assurance
that they were doing their duty, and would not be
charged with presumption. So General Hearsey,

Avhen he learnt the news that had come from Meerut
and Delhi, had written to the Military Secretary to
urge the Government to call lor troops from Madras
and Bombay and the Persian Gulf, and to arrest
the China expedition. So Henry Lawrence had
telegraphed to the Governor-General to get every
available European “ from China, Ceylon, and else-
where, also all the Goorkhas from the Hills.” So
Patrick Grant, the Commander-ia-Chief at Madras,
had telegraphed to him to send a swift steamer at
once to intercept the China expedition ;* and John
Lawrence had sent a message setting forth these and

* There lias been some discussion, forward on to you the whole of the
I believe, respecting the quarter troops intended for China. Whether
whence the suggestion to intercept China is coerced now, or months
the China troops first emanated, hence, is of no moment. The moral
I can see no reason to think that effect of such a force being brought
Lord Canning required any prompt- to the spot would be incaloulaDle,
ing. But if the question is to be and be regarded as something mira-
solved by reference to a priority of culous and supernatural.” At what
recorded date, it is, firstly, to Gene- precise moment Lord Canning first
ral Hearsey, and secondly to Sir determined to arrest the China ex-
Henry Lawrence, that the merit is pedition, is not apparent on the face
to be assigned. On the 15tii of May, of the records j but on the 18th he
General Hearsey wTote to Colonel telegraphed to Agra: “I hope to
Birch, saying : “ Send steamers to catch the regiments on their way to
meet and bring the European troops China.” During the week imme-
now on their way to China (Hong- diately following tlie outbreak at
Kong) to Calcutta. Do not delay Meerut, Lord Canning scarcely re-
doing this.” On the 16th of May, sorted to the post-office at all. The
Henry Lawrence telegraphed to Lord only letter that I can find is one to •

Canning: ** Get every European you General Anson, dated the 15 th, in
can from China, Ceylon, and else- which he does not mention the in-
where.” On the 17th, Sir Patrick tended arrest of the China troops;

Grant sent his message, more detailed but at that time he had received no
and emphatic : ‘^1 most earnestly re- detailed account of events at Meerut
commendthedespatohto Singapore of and Delhi, and scarcely knew the
the swiftest steamer obtainable, with extent of the evil with which he had
an earnest request to Lord Elgin to to contend.

OUTBEEAK OF THE MUmY.

(>16

1857 otW means of meeting the crisis. For ail tlmse
suggestions Lord Canning was grateful ; but it was
with much satisfaction, perhaps with some pride, that
when the detailed plans of the Chief Commissioner
of the Punjab were laid before him, he sent hack a
message, through the Lieutenant-Governor of Agi'u,
saying, “ Every precaution which your message sug-
gests has been taken long ago.”

Then, every etfort made, and every precaution
taken to save alike the Christian people and the great
empire committed to his care, there was an interval
of reflection ; and, with a feeling of solemn wonder.
Canning dwelt upon the causes of all this tremen-
dous excitement, and asked himself whether it could
he only a military mutiny that he was combating.
It did not seem as though the origin of such a com-
motion were to be found only in the unaided in-
stincts of the soldiery. It might be that the acti-
vities then discernible were purely military activi-
ties, but it did not follow that external influences
had not been at work to produce the state of mind
that was developing such terrible results. There
were even then some dawning apprehensions that,
with the best possible intentions, grave mistakes might
have been committed in past years, and that the tree
of benignant error was now bearing bitter fruit. He
thought over all that had been done by his great
predecessor ; the countries that had been annexed to
the British Empire, the powerful interests that had
suffered so grievously by our domination, the mani-
fold encroachments, material and moral, of English
muscle and English mind. Not at first did he per-
ceive all that was afterwards made clear to him, for
at the time of which I am now writing there were
many breaks in the great chain of postal and tele-

MUTINY OE REBELLION?

617

graphic communication, and it was not easy to form May, 1837.
a right conception of the actual situation of affairs in
the Upper Provinces. But he soon ceased to speak
of the mutiny, and called it a “rebellion” — a “re-
volt.” Early in the year, he had felt disposed to
attach some importance to the idea of political causes,
but, as he wrote on more than one occasion, “not
much.”* Now his uncertainty upon this point began
to disappear, and he wrote to the Indian Minister at
home that he had not a doubt that the rebellion had
been fomented “ by Brahmins on religious pretences,
and by others for political motives.”! He saw, in-
deed, that for some years preceding the outbreak the
English in India, moved by the strong faith that was
in them, had striven, with a somewhat intemperate
zeal, to assimilate all things to their own modes of
thought, and that the Old Man had risen against the
New, and resented his ceaseless innovations. To this
pass had the self-assertions of the national character
brought us. The Indian Empire was in flames. But,
with a proud and noble confidence. Canning felt that
this great national character which had raised the
conflagration would, by God’s blessing, ere long
trample it out. Even those whose despondency had
so pained him would, he knew, when called upon to
act, belie the weakness of their words by the bravery
of their deeds. Looking into the future, he saw the
fire spreading ; he saw the heathen raging furiously
against him, and a great army, trained in our own

* See note, ante^ page 550. a proclamation, wbicli goes to you

f Writing also to the Chairman herewith, has been issued with a
of the Court of Directors (Mr. Ross view of arresting the evil. But
Mangles), Lord Canning said; "I political animosity goes for some-
have learnt unmistakably that the thing among the causes, though it is
apprehension of some attempt upon not, m my opinion, a chief one.”*—

Caste is growing stronger, or at May' 19, 1857. — Corresjpond*
least is more sedulously spread, ence,

Mr. Colvin has found the same ; and

OUTBREAK OF IBE MUTINY.

C.18

Maj, 1857. schools of Warfare, turning against us the lessons we
had taught them, stimulated by the Priesthood, en-
couraged, perhaps aided, by the nobles of the land,
and with all the resources of the country at their
command; but seeing this, he saw also something
beyond, grand in the distance ; he saw the manh )’:J
cf England going oui to meet it.

APPESDIX

CIVIL PRIVILEGES OE THE SEPOYS

[The following is the memorandum to which reference is
made at page 256 :]

Bj’’ the regulations in force for the administration of Civil
Justice, the Coiu’ts were prohibited from corresponding by-
letter with parties in suits before them, or from receiving
pleadings or other applications in such cases except from the
parties or their authorised representatives. AU causes were
required to be heard in the order in which they stood on the
file of the Court, and the laws which required the use of
stamped paper in judicial proceedings were very strict, and
for a length of time of universal application.

“ In all these respects a great change was made in the year
1816 in favour of the Bengal Sepoy.

^^The regulation passed in that year made no change in
respect of claims originating in loans granted by a Native
officer or Sepoy, or in pecuniary transactions of a commercial
nature; but in all other respects the position of the Native
soldier, as a party to a suit in a Court of Civil Justice, was
materially improved.

^^If a Native soldier was desirous of instituting a suit in any
Court, he had only to inform his commanding officer of his
intention, and to execute a deed authorising any member of
his family to appear and act for him. This document was to

620

APPENDIX.

be sent by post by tlie commanding officer to tlie Judge of
the Court having jurisdiction in the matter, who was then re-
quired to take the necessary steps for giving information to
the party appointed to act for the applicant, and to afford
every facility for carrying on the cause. In like manner, if
the Sepoy was the defendant in a case, the usual notice was
to be served upon him tlu'ough his commanding officer, and
similar facilities were to be afforded to him In defending as in
prosecuting a case. If the Sepoy himself obtained furlough
for the purpose of instituting or defending a suit, he carried
with him a letter from his commanding officer to the Judge,
who was then required to hear the case without reference to
its order on the file, and to pass judgment in it with as little
delay as possible.

^^No stamps were to be required, and if judgment went
against the Sepoy, and any land or rent property belonging
to him was attached in execution of the judgment, the Court
was required to postpone the sale of it for such period as
might appear reasonable for the purpose of affording the
Native soldier an opportunity of discharging the amount ad-
judged against him.

like manner, if any estate belonging to a Native soldier
became liable to sale for the recovery of an axrear of revenue,
information of the same was to be given to him through his
commanding officer, and eveiy indulgence was to be shown to
liim before the last step of selling the estate was taken.

^^By the same regulation, the sub-treasurer at the Presi-
dency, the collectors of land revenue, and the several pay-
masters in the Presidency of Fort William, including the pay-
masters serving beyond the territories of the East India Com-
pany, were authorised to grant bills payable at sight without
deduction of any kind, and at the usual rate of exchange, on
any other treasury, for any sums which might be paid into
their respective treasuries on account of Native officers or
soldiers, who might be desirous of remitting money from one
part of the country to another.” — MS. MeTnorandum.

APPENDIX.

621

CASTE AND KACE IN THE SBPOT ARMT.

[The following statements, referred to at page 330, are
taken from the Appendix to the Report of the Royal Com-
mission on the organisation of the Indian Army. It will be
observed that the Bengal reports relate only to the remnant
of the Sepoy Army after the mutiny :]

Extracts fz'om the Official Return showing the Number, Caste, and
Country of the Native Officers and Soldiers of each Regiment, Regular
and Irregular, of each Presidency, confined to Regiments borne on the
Returns of each Army respectively ; so far as can be stated from the
Records in tiiis House. — ^East India House, Sept. 1858.

BENGAL.

Native Infantry, 7 Regiments, viz.: 21st, 31st, 47th, 65th, 66th, 70th,

and 73rd.

Native Oepioebs.

1 Non-Commissioned, Rank: and

Pile.

Ca^fe.

Caste,

Mahomedans

1,170

Brahmins

1,878

Rajpoots

2,637

Hindus of inferior descrip-

Hindus of Inferior descrip-

tion

2,057

Sikhs and Punjaubees

139

7,796

IiiREGiTLAR AND Local Ineantby, 12 Regiments, viz. : Regiment of Khelat*
i-Ghilzie, Regiment of Perozepore, Regiment of Loodianah, Simoor
Battalion, Kemaon Battalion, Nusseree Battalion, Hill Rangers, Assam
Light Infantry Battalion, Mhairwarrah Battalion, Sylhet Light Infantry
Battalion, ^racan Battalion, and Shekliawattee Battalion.

Native Ofeicebs.

1 Non-Commissioned, Rank and

Pile.

Caste.

Mahomedans

Maliomedans

.... 1,18&

Brahmins

.... 849

Rajpoots

.... 2,711

Hindus of inferior descrip-

Hindus of inferior descrin-

tion

.... 2,247

Sikhs

.... 1,309

Hill men

.... 1,112

Hughs

;... 705

Burmese

TWiiriTii'nA'l'PftS

Hunnip or ees

.... 167

Jhats

204 1

10,339

622

APPENDIX.

MADRAS.

Native Cavalry, 7 Regiments,

Non-Coimmisstoked 'Ra.nk and
Pile.

Native Oppicees.

Caste,

Mahomedans 68

Mahiattas 6

Rajpoots 3

Indo-Bntoiis 0

Caste,

Christians 32

Mahomedans 1,056

Rajpoots 00

Mahrattas 300

Other castes 2

Indo-Britons 159

2,539

Country,

Central Carnatic, Madras,

Yellore, &c.. 64i

Southern Carnatic, Trichi-

nopoly 7

Mysore 3

Tanjore, Madura, and Tinne-

velly 1

Ceded districts 2

Country,

Hindoostan 22

Northern Circars 67

Central Carnatic, Madras,

Yellore, &c 1,841

Southern Carnatic, Tiichi-

nopoiy 205

Baramahal 48

Ceded districts..,..* 54

Mysore 212

Tanjore, Madura, Tin-
nevelly 90

2,539

Native ISfPAKTEY, 52 Regiments.

Native Oppicees.

Caste,

Non-Commissione& Rank
Pile, '

Caste,

. AND

Christians

1,863

Mahomedans

684

Mahomedans

16,272

Brahmins and Raj p oots .....

Brahmins and Rajpoots...

1,922

Mahrattas

385

Telingas (Gentoo)

242

Telingaa (Gentoo)

15,371

Tamil

4,275

Other castes

I Other castes

1,616

Indo-Britons

Indo-Britons ......

1,011

1,030

Country,

41,706

Hindoostan

1,933

16,938

Northern Circars

317

Northern Circars

Central Carnatic, Madras,

Yellore, &c.......

Southern Carnatic, Trichi-

239

Yellore, &c

Southern Carnatic, Trichi-

8,841

nopoly

177

nopoly

4,760

Carried forward

. 784

Carried forward...

32,477

APPENDIX.

623

€ounir^,

Brouglit forward ... 784

Baramahal 29

Ceded districts 32

Mysore 59

Tanjore, Madura, and Tin-

nevelly 119

Deccan and Mahratta 7

1,030

Country,

Brought forward... 32,477

Baramahal 1,022

Ceded districts 1,705

Mysore 2,698

Tanjore, Madura, and Tin-

nevelly 3,617

Canara, Moulmein, Jaul-

nah, and Belgaum 28

Deccan and Mahratta 99

Portugal 1

Other parts 58

41,705

BOMBAY.

Nativk Cavaxbt, 3 Regiments.

Native Oeficees.

Caste.

Non-Commissioned, Rank and
File.

Caste,

Christians

1 Christians

... 66

Mahomedans

.. 12;

, Mahomedans

... 459

Brahmins and Rajpoots ...

.. 9

Brahmins and Rajpoots .

.... 252

Mahrattas

.. '1

Mahrattas

... 118

Telingas (Gentoo) ... *

Tamil

., 0

.. 0

Telingas (Gentoo)

Tamil

Other castes

.. 12

Other castes

.... 508

Indo-Britons

.. 1

Indo-Britons

.... 22

1,425

Country,

Hindoostan

.. 29]

Country,

Hindoostan

... 1,073

Northern Ciroars

Central Carnatic, Madras,

VeUore, &c '

Southern Carnatic, Trichi-

nopoly

Deccan

Coucan

Mysore

Tanjore, Madura, and Tinne-

velly

Bombay

Northern Circars
Central, Carnatic, Madras,

Yellore, &o

Southern Carnatic, Tricbi-

nopoly 0

Deccan..., 125

Concan..... 114

Mysore 0

Tanjore, Madura, and Tin-

nevelly — 0

Guzerat 14

Persia 1

Lisboo 4

Africa 2

Bombay...:..... 4

Punjab and Scinde 21

Cabool and Affgbanistan ... 15

Europe 1

36 ^

1,425

624

APPENDIX.

Kaiive T^tpant-rt, 29 Regiments,

Native Oeeicers.

Caste,

Christians ^

Maliomedans 11-1-

Brahmins and Rajpoots 188

Mahrattas 118

Telingas (Gentoo) 8

Tamil 1

Jews 3

Other castes 130

Indo-Britons 0

Purwarrees 3

583

XoJT-COMMISSIONEn, RaAK aN‘I>

Pius,

Caste,

Christians 270

Maliomedans 2,048

Brahmins and Rajpoots... 0,421

Mahrattas 7,9 SO

Telingas (Gentoo) 107

Tamil 55

Jews 12

Other castes 7,728

Indo-Britons 22

Purwarrees 170

Mochees 29

Sikhs 28

24,870

Comtry,

Hindoostan 268

Northern Circars 7

Central Carnatic, Madras,

TeUore, &c 37

Southern Carnatic, Trichi-

nopoly 13

Deccan 57

Concan 173

Mysore 4

Tanjore, Madura, and Tinne-

velly 0

Guzerat 4

Comtry,

Hindoostan... 11,089

Northern Circars 135

Central Carnatic, Madras,

Yellore, &c..... 412

Southern Carnatic, Trichi-

nopoly 203

Deccan 1,820

Concan 10,878

Mysore 36

Tanjore, Madura, and Tin-

nevelly 33

Mysore and Punjab 28

Guzerat 80

Scinde, Punjab, and Raj-

pootana 153

Europe 1

563

24,870

Genekal liETUEN sliowing the Races and Castes of which the Native Army was composed on April 1, 1858.

Total.

cs oo oo CO os

CO 04 04 oa xo CO

r— CM Ci CO 1 — f XO 04

r-H i—T r— T 1—^ CO*

CM -.fl 1 — 1

r-H

t-T

Number of each Race and Caste.

•saqt.i'i. A:.io!jup3acl

Jdq'4u piiB ‘suTfaa
-SSWJI£> *SLj[B3dS.IOj|}\[

CC*

. . , CM . .

: : r o* ; : ;

“so~

~CO

'S[aDqa[

: z I'S • • :

* • CO • *

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• • r-H • “ *

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»o

r-H

C»

•sat'Bqx;\[

. . . CO . .

. CO - -

* xo " *

•uajtt U5H

t>- CM

: : : CO :

•SBtiqaooJC)

<0 r— » <Oa

: : c?a i>- CM : :

• . XO CM

-su-BqSjjv

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; ; : CO CO : :

- . . r-H

t>.

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•soqujQ ‘BJtHznii

: : : 04 : : :

t-—

"cos

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; ; ; xo ( — 1 : ;

! : : CO •

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- - ; t— CO 1 — 1 :

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: r : CO CM :

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04

t—

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ocT

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C» OO CO CO)

: : r-H CM ^ :

• • xjraoT

1“^

-sqqios

xo CO

: : CO CO CO ; ;

I t I-H XO oo : .

•saoi'xdi.tosap
joijcajat JO sooputHC

xra xo CO i—H r— < CO

-<#1 CO CM CM OO : r-H

CO CO j — it

*s:joodfB^E

OO 1 — ' I— • OS 0&

OO CO CO 1 — 1 -cH t—

04 -HH C» XO : i-H

«o cjsT

•sutraq'Bajx

t— "sf* xo 04 O* OO

l>» CO CO xra : 1 — 1

CO CM xra CO .

”cO

• snBmxnssnT/^

CM CO CO -H CM

xo CM cs xo CO

XO CO XO Or^QO :

CO**— ^*Of^ '

<=r

•su'BtijsiJtqo 1

xo CO CO 1 — 1
• CM OT CM -<^1 : :

<34

t—

piT-B pTfB'saooijyo

p3uoissitxmioQ-iio>i ly

pauoissiuicuoo

1 — 1 OO XO CO CO <o>

-.fl xo CM — H CO CO CO

t>- OS 04

o<r c— r 1— j* 04 CO*

CM -nH j— 1

CO)

coT

*s.i03tjjO p«=»nots
-scimaoo-uoj^ uBodoanjf

-^COO-O^) CO CM

-cH <34 ;

CO)

~o
CM
> ^

•sjoomo

jpa«oiSRiTnni 03 ii’B.xAo.iug;

CO CO OO CO r-H

CM — t OS 1 — 1

04 CM

—

CORPS.

Artillery

Light Cavalry

lulantry, Regular..
Infantry, Irregular.
Cavalry, Irregular..
Artillery, Irregular.
Sebundy Sappers &
Miners

Toifil

j N.B.--Aggregate of Corps the Races'of which are not shown in this Return 2,920|

Grand Total 80,053

Adjutant-General’s Office, Head-Quarters, (Signed) W. Mathew, Lieut.-CoL,

Allahabad, August 13, 1858. -Adjutant-General ot the Army.

626

APPENDIX,

O t>- '«f< r-H lO
io io CO 50 OO
CO 50 CD CO

•sjcaogfo | •

I •41101x1 2

-Hsiiq-u^sa I'BOipaK ^

00 >•

50 *-** -S3

“H' » S

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•CD f— ^

: •€! <0

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-uaa.ui 0At4B^

•fi4tt0ai g

-iSo-H 9St M«I
-nSa'j£

S ^<3

H S

•sauauuao'a;

6 «UBa<lqjity[

•s'juamiSa'at
88 ‘AiJinyaxai

•S4aaini30'a[
XS *J«lti30X£

•suoiiB44Ba; 9
* 40 oi eAi^B^

•suoqH44i8a; jix

400 ^ uBadoana
•sap'BS

-ua 9 ‘0SXOH

•sjeddBS
pu-B sj[90ui3ug;

I -s^Saxi ZZ

j>»co CO
rH rH
ao CO 00

O O’*

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f-« 50

cScCrH
so CO
CM

: M

[ s - ^

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• g s

§§■£'

i§«

Cfcq '

DU r g .

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:3 « «>

eats ;

: o

: ^ : §

# ec • S3

■I :S

- ^ C 5

3:5.S:

3 2 oS

-i Vi

APPENDIX.

B27

[In Chaptei' I., Book III., some extracts are given from an
interesting memorandum furnished by Sir Robert Phillimore,
which is now given in its integrity.]

MEMORIALS OF THE EAREY EIFE OF EARL CANNING. BY SIR
ROBERT FHIBLIMORE, QUEEN’S AHVOOATE.

When young Canning was eleven years old, liis father took
the usual steps for procuring his admission to Eton, the scene
on which his own brilliant talents had given the first promise of
that future excellence which they afterwards so fully realised.
Mr. (afterwards Bishop) Chapman went, at the request of the
Provost, Dr. Goodall, in 1824, to Gloucester Lodge, and in
the presence of the great statesman examined his boy, in order
that there might be no doubt as to his fitness to be placed in
the upper school. The well-known description of the storm
in the First .ZEneid, ^ Interea magno misceri murmure pon-
tum,’ &c., was the passage chosen for the trial of his pro-
ficiency ; and the Bishop now remembers the anxiety with
which the father watched the essay of his son, and the smile
of approval which greeted his rendering of the rather difficult
transition, ^ Quos ego sed motos,’ &c., and the final ^ not so
bad,^ which followed at the close of the whole translation

Young Canning was entered on the 4th September, 1824,
at the house of Mr. Chapman. According to the records of
the school, he was ^plus vice simplici,^ sent np ^for good,'
the only distinction at that time attainable at Eton. His re
pntation, however, at school was rather for intelligence, accu-
racy, and painstaking than for refined scholarship, or any
remarkable powers of composition. The interval between
Eton and Osiford was passed with a private tutor, the Reverend
Thomas Shore, a nephew of Lord Teignmouth, who resided
at Potton, Bedfordshire, but who discharged no public func-
tions as a clergyman at that place- It is probable that be
derived great benefit from the tuition of Mr. Shore. While
under the care of this gentleman he formed an intimate friend-
ship with the eldest son of the late Lord Harris (afterwards a
contemporary at Christ Church), which continued without
intermission to the last hour of his life. By a singular turn

2 s 2

628

APPENDIX.

of fortune, Earl Canning became Governoi'-General of India
while his friend Lord Harris was Governor of Madras* Upon
the death of Mr. Canning in 1827, Mrs. Canning was created
a Viscountess, with remainder to her son. It was-, neverthe-
less, wisely determined not to send young Canning to Oxford
as the son of a nobleman, but to obtain for him a studentship
of Christ Church, and thereby to place him in exactly the
same position at the University which his father had formerly
occupied. It appears that he was nominated by l)r. Pett, the
old friend and tutor of his father, and one of the canons of
Christ Church, as a student on the roll which was made up
December 24, 1827 ; but he was actually made a student by
the Dean in filling up a roll dated December 20, 1828, ^ in
return for Dr. Pett’s nomination’ having been given up (a
practice not unfrequent at that time) to the Dean ^ in the last
roll.’

^'Mr. Gladstone, Lord Elgin (then Mr. Bruce), Mr. Henry
Denison (a distinguished scholar), and Sir B.obert Phillimore,
were, among others, brother students with him ; and in the
number of his contemporaries at Christ Church, who after-
wards became his colleagues in public life, were Lord Dal-
housie and the Duke of Newcastle. He lived chiefly with a
few intimate friends, among whom was Lord De Tabley, one
of his executors. To them his naturally happy and cheerful
temperament, his keen perception of character, his fund of
quiet humour, his accomplishments as a scholar, and, above
all, his loyal and affectionate heart, made him a delightful
companion. He was not generally popular, and to those
without his own immediate circle his manners were shy and
reserved. He took at that time no particular interest in
politics, and whether from a feeling that his father’s great
name imposed upon him an arduous responsibility, or from
extreme sensitiveness to failure, did not then appear desirous
to embark upon that stormy ocean of public life on which he
afterwards so gallantly sailed and so nobly diedr

"Those who heard his speech at the banquet given to him
by the India House previous to his departure as Governor-
General, know that he could, when strongly urged, put forth
oratorical powers of a high order : but at Oxford^ as in after-

APPENDIX.

629

life, he showed no natural aptitude or inclination for speaking
in public. His fastidious accuracy of language, his sensitive
and proud nature, and a certain physical difficulty, as well,
perhaps, as the ever-present recollection of his father’s un-
rivalled success as a parliamentary chieftain, combined to
dissuade him from often attempting this particular path to
distinction. But at Christ Church he acquired, or matured
that command of pure English, and that excellent style which
in every letter or even note w'hich he wrote excited just ad-
miration.

“ In the year 1831 he won the Christ Church prize for Latin
verse. The subject was ‘ Caractacus captivus Eomam ingre-
ditur.’ The verses were as usual recited in the hall. It was
a remarkable scene. In that magnificent banqueting-room
are hung the portraits of students who have reflected honour
upon the House which reared them, by the distinctions which
they have won in after-life.

“Underneath the portrait of George Canning, the recollec-
tion of whose brilliant career and untimely end was stiU fresh
in the memory of men, stood the son in the prime of youth,
recalling, by his eminently handsome countenance, the lioble
features of the portrait, while repeating the classical prize
poem which would have gladdened his fatheris heart. Gene-
rally speaking, the resident members of Christ Church alone
compose the audience when the prize is recited, but on this
occasion there was one stranger present — ^the old, faithful
friend of Mr. Canning, his staunch political adherent through
life, Mr. Sturges Bourne. He had travelled from London
for the express purpose of witnessing the first considerable
achievement of the younger Canning.

“ He closed his career at the University with distinguished
success, obtaining, in Easter Term, 1833, a first-class in clas-
sical and a second-class in mathematics honours. He took
the degree of B.A. in the same year, but never proceeded to
the degree ct M.A.’' — MS. MeuMrandum.

630

APPENDIX.

riNAD ORDERS TO THE MUSICETRY SCHOODS.

[The following is the letter referred to at page 561 — note P

The Adjutanfr General of the Army to Major-General Ilearsey^
AJjutant-GeneraPs Office, Simlah, April 13, 1857.

SiRj — fiefeiTing to the telegraph message from this office
dated the 23rd ultimo (and your acknowledgments of the
25th idem), communicating the Commander-in-Chiefs orders
to postpone the target practice of the Native soldiers at tlic
Eifle Depot at Dum-Duoi, pending further instructions from
this Department, I am now desired to request you will be good
enough to inform the officer commanding at Dum-Dum, and
through, him the Dep6t authorities concerned, that the course
of instruction is to be completed by the Native details, and
that their target practice is to be commenced as soon as prac-
ticable after the Government General Order disbanding the
Nineteenth Eegiment of Native Infantry has been read to the
troops at the station, including the detachments of Native re-
giments at the Dep6t.

2. The grease for the cartridge is to be any unobjectionable
mixture which may be suited for the purpose, to be provided
by selected parties comprising all castes concerned, and is to
be applied by the men themselves,

3. The paper of w’hich the cartridges are constructed
having been proved by chemical test, and otherwise, to bo
perfectly free from grease, and in all respects unobjection-
able; and all possible grounds for objection in regard to the
biting of the cartridge, and the nature of the grease to be
used, having been removed, it is not anticipated that the men
will hesitate to perform the target practice ; but, in the event
of any such unexpected result, the Oommander-in-Ohief de-
sires that their officers may be instructed to reason calmly
with them, pointing out the utter groundlessness for any
objection to the use of the cartridges now that biting the
end has been dispensed with, and the provision and applica-
tion of the necessary greasing material has been left to them-
selves; and, further, to assure them that any one who shall

APPENDIX. 631

molest or taunt them on return to their corps, shall be visited
with severe punishment.

4. The officer commanding the Depot will be held respon-
sible that the above directions respecting the greasing mixture,
and those recently issued in regard to the new mode of load-
ing, are strictly observed.

“ 5. If, notwithstanding all these precautions and considerate
measures, any disinclination to use the cartridges shall be
manifested, the parties demurring are to be warned calmly
and patiently, but firmly, that a persistence in such unjusti-
fiable conduct will be viewed as disobedience of orders and in-
subordination, and treated accordingly, and in the event of
any individuals after such warning obstinately refusing to fire,
the officer commanding at Dum-Dum will at once place such
parties in arrest or confinement, according to the rant of the
offenders, and cause them to be tried by Court-Martial.

6. If, however, the entii’e Depdt shall combinedly refuse to
fire, which is very improbable, the Commander-in-Ohief,
under such circumstances, empowers you to place all the
Native officers in arrest pending his Excellenc/s further
orders, which you will immediately apply for ; to deprive the
non-commissioned officers and Sepoys of their arms and ac-
coutrements, and to pay them up and summarily discharge
them on the spot, excepting, of course, any ringleaders in
these latter grades or parties whose refusal may be accom-
panied by insolence or insubordination, who are to be placed
under arrest or confinement, in view of their being arraignea
before a District or General Court-Martial, as the case may
require.

7. This communication is to be considered purely confi-
dential, and his Excellency relies implicitly on your carrying
out the instructions it contains with the utmost caution and
discretion.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your most obedient servant,

0. Chester, CoL
of the Armyl^

— MS* Records.

632

ArrE:®ix

THE CIIUrATTIES-

- *® stated at page 571 that Mr, Forcly ]^^agl^>trate md

Collector of Goorgaon, was tlie first to call the attention of
the Government of the North-Western Provinces to this sub-
ject. His letter, addressed, in official course, to the Comniis-
sioner of Delhi^ is appended :]

** Goor^aon Magistracy, February 19, 1857,
Sin, — I have tiid honour to inform you that a signal has
passed through numbers of the villages of this district, the
purport of which has not yet transpired.

“The Chowkeydars of the villages bordering on those be-
longing to Mutra have received small baked cakes of atta,
with orders to distribute them generally through this district.

“ A Ohowkeydar, upon receiving one of these cakes, has had
five or six more prepared, and thus they have passed from
village to village ; so quicldy has the order been executed,
that village after village has been served with this notice*
“This day, cakes of this description have ai'rived and been
distributed in the villages about Goorgaon, and an idea has
been industriously circulated that Government has given the
order. « W. Foki>, Magistrate-

“ To Simon Fraser, Esq,,

“ Commissioner, Delhi.”

[In the course of the trial of the Bang of Delhi great pains
were taken to extract from the witnesses, both European and
Native, some explanation of the Chupatty mystery but
nothing satisfactory was elicited. The following opinions,
however, were recoi'ded :]

From the Evidence of Jot Idallj Neios-~writer to the lAeutenant'*

Govemon.

“ Q, Did you ever hear of the circulation of chupatties about
the country, some months before the outbreak ; and if so, what
was supposed to be the meaning of this ?

'^4. Yes, I did bear of the circumstance. Some people said
that it was a propitiatory observance to avert some impending

APPENDIX.

633

calamity ; others, that they were circulated by the Govei’u-
ment to signify that the population throughout the country
would be compelled to use the same food as the Christians,
and tlius be deprived of their religion ; while others, again,
said that the chupatties were circulated to make it loiown that
Government was determined to force Christianity on the
countiy by interfering with their food, and intimation of it
was thus given that they might be prepared to resist the
attempt.

Q. Is sending such articles about the country a custom
among the Hindoos or Mussulmans ; and would the meaning
be at once understood without any accompanying explana-
tion ?

A. No, it is not by any means a custom ; I am fifty years
old, and never heard of such a thing before.

Q. Did you ever hear that any message was sent with the
chupatties ?

A. No ; I never heard of any,

Q. Were these chupatties chiefly circulated by Mahomedans
or Hindoos ?

A. They were circulated indiscriminately, without refer-
ence to either religion, among the peasantry of the country.’^

From the Evidence of Sir T/ieophilus Metcalfe.

Q. Can you give the Court any information about the
chupatties which were circulated from village to village some
months before the outbreak ; and has it been ascertained how
they originated, or what was the purport of their being circu-
lated ?

A. There is nothing but conjecture regarding them, but
the first suggestion made by the Natives in reference to them
was, that they were thus sent about in connexion with some
sickness that prevailed ; but this was clearly an error, as I took
the trouble of ascertaining that these chupatties were never
sent into any Native States, but were confined always to Go-
vernment villages ; they were spread through only five villages
of the Delhi territory, when they were immediately stopped
by authority, and they never proceeded farther up-country.

634

APPENDIX.

I sent for the men who had brought tliem from the district of
Bolundshnhr, and their apology for circulating them was that
they believed it to be done by order of the English Govern-
ment, that they had received them elsewhere, and ha<l but
forwarded them on, I believe that the meaning of the
chnpatties was not understood in the Delhi district ; but
originally they were to be taken to all those who partook of
oiie kind of food, connecting a body of men together in con-
tradistinction to those who lived differently and had different
customs, I think these chupatties originated at Lucknow,
and were, no doubt, meant to sound a note of alarm and pre-
paration, giving warning to the people to stand by one another
on any danger menacing them.”

From the Evidence of CJiuni^ News-^writer*

Q. Do you recollect the circumstance of chupatties being
circulated from village to village ?

A. Yes, I remember hearing of it before the outbreak.

Q, Was the subject discussed in the Native newspapers;
and if so, what was considered the meaning of it ?

A. Yes, it was alluded to, and it was supposed to portend
some coming disturbance, and was, moreover^ understood as
implying an invitation to the whole populdtion of the country
to unite for some secret object afterwards to be disclosed.

Q. Do you know whence these chupatties originated, or to
what quarter general opinion among the Natives attxibuted
them?

A» I have no knowledge as to where they were first started,
but it was generally supposed that they came from Kurnaul
and Paneepiit.”

From the Evidence of Captain Martineau*

- Q, Had you any conversation with these men (i. e. with the
men assembled at IJmballah for musketry instruction) relative
to some chupatties that were circulated to different villages in
these districts before the outbreak ?

APPENDIX.

635

A* Yes^ I had frequent conversations with various Sepoys
on this subject. I asked them what they understood in re-
ference to themj and by whom they supposed that they were
circulated ; they described them to me as being in size and
shape like ship biscuits, and believed them to have been distri-
buted by order of Government through the medium of their
servants for the purpose of intimating to the people of Hin-
doostan that they should all be compelled to eat the same food,
and that was considered as a token that they should likewise
be compelled to embrace one faith, or, as they termed it, ^ One
food and one faith/

Q* As far as you could understand, was this idea generally
prevalent among all the Sepoys of the various detachments at
the Depot ?

A. It was prevalent, as far as I could judge, among all the
Sepoys of every regiment that furnished a detachment to the
Dep6t at Umballah.

Q. W as there any report of the Government having mixed
ground bones with flour for the purpose of having it distri-
buted to the Sepoys, and so destroying their caste ?

A. Yes, I heard of this in the month of March. It was
told me that all the flour retailed from the Government
Depdts for the supply of troops on the march was so adul-
terated.

Q. Do you think the Sepoys generally firmly believed
this ?

A, I have seen correspondence from various men, which
the Sepoys of the Depot voluntarily placed in my hands, the
writers of which, themselves Sepoys, evidently believed that
such was the case.

Q, Did the Sepoys ever speak to you about any other cause
of complaint, or points on which they sought information ?

A. Their complaint, or rather fear, was this : they appre-
Jiended that Government was going forcibly to deprive them
of their caste.

Q. Did any of them ever speak about Government inter-
ference regarding the re-marriage of Hindoo widows ?

A. Yes, they alluded to that as an invasion of their social
rights*”

636

ArPENBIX.

From the Statement of Hakim Ahsan Ullah^ Confidential PJqh
sician to the King of JDelhL

Nobody can tell what was the object of the distribution of
the clmpatties. It is not known wdio first projected the plan.
All the people in the palace wondered \Yhat it could mean. I
had no conversation with the King on the subject ; but others
talked in his presence about it, wondering what could be the
object.

I consider that the chupatty affair probably originated with
the Native troops, and the distiibution first commenced in
Oude. I also wondered what it was, but considered that it
implied something.

I consider that the distribution of the chupatties first began
in Oude.

It was the opinion of some that the Native troops had de-
signed these chupatties as emblematical of some particular
object. Others believed that there was some charm attached
to them, inasmuch as they were distributed unknown all over
the country, and without it being known who first originated
the idea, and whence they were first sent out. People also
believed that these chupatties were the invention of some
adept in the secret arts, in order to preserve unpolluted the
religion of the country, which, it was reported, the Govern-
ment had proposed to themselves to subvert in two yeatsP

[The following extracts from published works bear upon
the subject of inquiry. In the first, the preceding statement
that the circulation of the chupatties commenced in Oude, is
corroborated :]

^^Some time in February, 1857, a curious occurrence took
place. It began on the confines of Oude. A Chowkeydar
ran up to another village with two chupatties. He ordered
his fellow-official to make ten more, and give two to each of
the five nearest village Chowkeydars with the same instruc-
tions. In a few hours the whole country waS“ in a stir, from
Chowkeydars flying about with these cakes. The signal spread

APPENDIX.

637

m all directions with wonderful celerity. The magistrates
tiled to stop it, but, in spite of all they could do, it passed
along to the borders of the Punjab. There is reason to believe
that this was originated by some intriguers of the old Court of
Lucknow. Its import has not been satisfactorily explained,
and was probably not understood by many who helped it
along. But the same thing occurred in Behar and about
Jhansi in connexion with the discontent caused by the new
income-tax. It has been stated by a Native authority, pub-
lished by Mr. Russell of the Times (see Friend of India^ March
10, 1859), that the first circulation of the chupatties was
made at the suggestion of a learned and holy pundit, who told
Rajah Madhoo Singh that the people would rise in rebellion
if it were done, and that the person in whose name the cakes
were sent would rule all India. This, however, is very doubt-
ful.” — Siege of Delhiy hy an Officer who served there.

^^That remarkable and still unexplained passage through
Oude, and elsewhere, of the chupatty symbol, occurred early
in 1857, and, from the first movement of its advent into Oude,
spread with such amazing rapidity, that it was calculated ten
days more than sufficed for every village Chowkeydar in
Oude to have received the little bread-cake, and made and
passed on similar little bread-cakes to every village OLow-
keydar within the ordinary radius of his travels. The Natives
generally may have viewed this sign-manual flying through
their villages — so common a method amongst men in the early
stages of civilisation to warn all for either peace or war — as a
forerunner of some universal popular outbreak, but by whom
or with what class the standard of rebellion would be raised
certainly was not generally known.” — Narrative of the Mutinies
in Oude^ compiled from Authentic Records^ hy Captain G.
Hutchinson^ Military Secretary to the Chief Comm%ssione'^^
Oude.

the North-West Provinces it was discovered that
chupatties were being circulated throughout the country in

638

APPENDIX,

a s«)m< 3 wliat mysterious manner.* Tlie fact was duly re-
porced from various quarters ; inquiries , were ordered to be
set on foot, but nothing further could be traced as to their
origin or object, and they were suffered to travel on from
yillage to village with little let or hindrance. Some fifty
years before a similar appearance in Central India had per-
plexed the authorities, t but no solution of the mystery had
been gained, and as nothing had then resulted from it, the
hope was grasped at that in the present instance also, if not
meaningless, it might prove equally harmless : it might be
some superstitious spell against disease, for cholera had
ravaged several districts during the previous autumn, or
against some impending calamity, for the whole country
teemed with forebodings of coming trouble. At all events,
the idea was scouted of its having any political meaning ;
and far-seeing old Indiaiis, who dared to look gravely, on
the ^cliupatty mystery,’ were denounced as croakers .” — Tlie
Punjab and Delhi in 1857, by the Rev. T, Cave-Browncj Chap-‘
lam of the Punjab Moveable Column.

The leaders and promoters of this great rebellion, whoever
they may have been, knew well the inflammable condition,
from these causes, of the rural .society in the North-Western
Provinces, and they therefore sent among them the chupatties,
as a kind of fiery cross, to call them to action. The cakes

* Oae district officer, who saw a
chupatty-laden messenger arrive in
a village, and observed him breaking
his cake into pieces and distributing
them among the men of tlie village,
asked what it meant; he was told
that there was an old custom in
Hindoostan, that when Ttialik, or
chief, required any service from his
people, he adopted this mode to pre-
pare them for receiving his orders,
^and every one who partook of the ehu-
patties was held pledged to obey the
order whenever it might come, and
whatever it might be. ** What was

the nature of the order in the pre-
sent case he asked. The answer,
accompanied by a suspicious smile,
•was, “ We don’t know yet,’*

f Mr. Browne, in his very interest-
ing and trustworthy work, quotes,
as his authority for this, “Kaye’s
Life of Metcalfe;’* but I have no
recollection of the statement, and I
have caused a diligent search to be
made through the work, but with no
success. 1 remember, however, to
liave read in the papers ot Sir John
Malcolm a statement to the elfect
that, at a time of political excitement,
I believe just before the mutiny of
the Coast Army in 1806, there had
been a mysterious circulation of
sugar. There was also, in 1818, a
very perplexing distribution ci cocoa-
nuts in Central India; but it subse-
quently appeared to have been the re-
sult of a mere accident. — J. W* K. '

APPENDIX.

6S9

passed with the most amazing rapidity over the length and
breadth of the land. Where they came from originally, it xs
impossible to say, but I believe Barrackpore was the starting-
point, where large masses of mutinous Sepoys were congre-
gated. The chupatties entered my district from the adjoining
one of Shajehanpoor, a village watchman of that place giving
to the watchman of the nearest Budaon village two of the
cakes, with an injunction to make six fresh ones, retain two
for his own, and give the others to the watchman of the next
village, who would follow the same course, and continue the
manufacture and distribution. I truly believe that the rural
population of all classes, among whom these cakes spread,
were as ignorant as I was myself of their real object ; but it
was clear they were a secret sign to be on the alert, and the
minds of the people were through them kept watchful and
excited. As soon as the disturbances broke out at Meerut
and Delhi, the cakes explained themselves, and the people at
once perceived what was expected of them.” — Personal Adven-
tures during the Indian Pehellion in Rohilcund^ Futtehghur^
and Oudey hy William Edwards^ Esq., B.C.S.y Judge of
Benares^ and late Magistrate and Collector of Budaon^ in
Rohilcund.

[Compare also the statement at page 647.]

THE BONE-I>XJST STOUT.

[The following translations from Native letters and papers
show how general w^as the belief among the Sepoys in all
parts of the country that the Government had mixed ground
bones with the flour, and purposed to compel or. to delude them
to eat it :]

Translation of an Anonymous Petition senty in Marchy 1857, to
Major Matthewsy commanding the 4Zrd Regiment at Barrack-
pore*

<< The representation of the whole station is this, that we will
not give up our religion. We serve for honour and religion ;
if we lose our religion, the Hindoo and Mahomedan religious

640

APPENDIX.

will be destroyed. If we live, what shall we do ? You are
the masters of the country. The Lord Sahib has given
orders, which he has received from the Company, to all com-
manding officers to destroy the religion of the country. We
know this, as all things are being bought up by Government.
The officers in the Salt Department mix up bones with the
salt. The officer in charge of the ghee mixes up fat with it ;
this is well known. These are tw’-o matters. The third is
this : that the Sahib in charge of the sugar burns up bones
and mixes them in the syrup the sugar is made of ; this is
well known — all know it. The fourth is this : that in the
country the Burra Sahibs have ordered the Rajahs, Thakurs,
Zemindars, Mahajans, and Ryots, all to eat together, and
English bread has been sent to them; this is well known.
And this is another affair, that throughout the country the
wives of respectable men, in fact, all classes of Hindoos, on
becoming widows, are to be married again ; this is known.
Therefore we consider ourselves as killed. You all obey the
orders of the Company, which we all know. But a king, or
any other one w^ho acts unjustly, does not remain.

With reference to the Sepoys, they are your servants ; but,
to destroy their caste, a council assembled and decided to give
them muskets and cartridges made up with greased paper to
bite; this is also evident. We wish to represent this to the
General, that we do not approve of the new musket and
cartridge ; the Sepoys cannot use them. You are the masters
of the country ; if you will give us all our discharge we will
go away. The Native officers, Soubahdars, Jemadars, are all
good in the whole Brigade, except two, whose faces are like
pigs : the Soubahdar Major of the 70th Regiment, who is a
Christian, and Thakur Misser, Jemadar of the 43rd Regiment
Light Infantry.

“ \ATioever gets this letter must read it to the Major as it is
written. If he is a Hindoo and does not, his crime will be
equal to the slaughter of a lakh of cows ; and if a Mussul-
man, as though he had eaten pig ; and if a European, must
read it to the Native officers, and if he does not, his going to
church will be of no use, and be a crime. Thakur Misser
has lost his religion, Chattrees are not to respect him. Brah-

APPENDIX.

641

mins are not to salute or bless him. If they do, their crime
will be equal to the slaughter of a lakh of cows. He is the
son of a Chumar. The Brahmin who hears this is not to
feed him ; if he does, his crime will be equal to the murdering
of a lakh of Brahmins or cows.

May this letter be given to Major Matthews. Any one
who gets it is to give it, if he does not, and is a Hindoo, his
crime will be as the slaughter of a lakh of cows ; and if a
Mussulman, as if he had eaten pig ; and if he is an oflScer he
must give it.”

Translation of a Letter from Inayut-Oolah Goolaothee^ of

BoolundshuliTj to his Brother Fyzool Hussan^ Extra Assistanty

Rawul Pindee*

“ The reason of my letters not reaching you is

this : that on the 12th of Eamyan, in Meerut ^ Khasy such a
fight occurred between the Native and European troops on
a point of religion as cannot be described. The foundatioi/
of the quarrel was this : that thousands of maunds of atta
was taken into every ressalah and regiment; and with this
atta was mixed the ground bones of the cow and pig ; and
the cartridges were also made with the fat of the cow and pig.
The shopkeepers in the city were ordered to purchase atta”
from Government and . sell it in all the villages. It was
ordered by beat of drum that atta be not ground in any vil-
lage, and that in every district all the mills should be con-
fiscated to Government. It was also ordered that ten maunds
of atta be thrown into every well, kuchcha or pukka, in every
village and town. The troops at every station with one ac*
cord said, that if the troops at Meerut should receive the atta
and cartridges, they would receive them without objection.
A few European officers assembled at Meerut, and having
collected the officers of the pultun and ressalah, ordei^ed
them to take the atta from the Government and to bite the
cartridges with the month. A few Sirdars objected to do
so : but two, one a Hindoo and the other a Mussulman, bit
Ahe cartridge witii the mouth. A reward of one hundred
rupees was immediately paid to both. The rest said that

2 T

642

APPENDIX.

they would consult each other during the nighty and intimate
the result the next morning. There were about eighty-four
men. They were instantly sent to jail in irons. One among
them, a Syud, who was fasting, struck his head on the ground
and died. About two hours before sunset the troops girded
up their loins and killed all the European soldiers and ofScers
that were present. Only the Commissioner and the District
Officer escaped. The rest of the principal Europeans were
killed — ^women nor even children, . all that were Europeans^
escaped. Afterwards they went to the jail. There was a
sentry at the gate, whom they asked to open it. The sentry
refused, upon which a Sowar, who was a Syud, advanced,
and, with the name of God in his mouth, forced open the
gate with a kick. They then collected blacksmiths from the
city, and, taking them to the jail, unfettered several thousand
prisoners. Both the jails were broken through. Then they
went to and sacked the treasury. This state of things con-
tinued for two days. The people of the city of Meerut also
joined them, as also the Syuds of Ubdoollapoor, a village
near Meerut. The whole of the cantonment was fired ; not
a single bungalow escaped. The ^Dewanee Duftur’ was
also burnt. On the third day they went away to Delhi ;
small bodies of them also scattered themselves in different dis-
tricts. Three days afterwards the troops at Umballah btirnt
that cantonment and went away to Delhi. The Native troops
at Boorkee also fired that station, and went over to Meerut.
The residue of the Eui'opean troops, being joined by others,
demanded their arms from the Native soldiery, but they re-
fused. The European troops surrounded them with guns.
In a single volley forty of the Natives were killed, but the
latter in their turn sent sixty-five Gorahs to hell by a single
volley of their muskets. The Native troops then took their
way to Delhi. A few went to the village of Ubdoollapoor,
the Syuds of which place gave them refuge and consolation.
But secretly they sent a man and informed the Commis-
sioner, who proceeded with ten guns to Ubdoollapoor, and cut
bff the road to Meerut tod Delhi. Then the scoundrels
(Syuds of Ubdoollapoor) informed the refugees that they had
given them shelter, but that Government troops had arrived

APPENDIX.

643

The poor fellows then fled, but in their flight about fifteen or
twenty were killed and several wounded ; but they also killed
about forty men, and then went to Delhi. In short, from all
sides the Native troops assembled at Delhi and desired the
King to ascend the throne. His Majesty refused; but the
Sepoys said : ^ Do you ascend the throne, else we shall cut
off your head and bury your body underneath the throne, and
place one from among ourselves on the throne.^ They then
placed Shahzadah Jew'an Bukht on the throne. They then
fired the Tuhseel stations at Ghazeeabad, Mooradnuggur,
Mooradabad, and Cawnpore, &c., and Thanas of the Badsha
were located there. One month’s pay has been distributed to
the troops by the King. The King also wrote to the Eng-
lish, telling them that their troops, having been dissatisfied
with them, had come over to the King and to take them
away. The English replied, that the King himself should
send them back. A Moulavee from Meerut and another from
some other place have gone over to Delhi with about six
thousand men to make religious war. The Eoyal mandates
were issued to the different Rajahs to wait upon the King;
It is said that the Rajah of Bifllubgurh has waited upon his
Majesty with his troops ; and it is also said that the King has
raised new troops, and has fixed the pay of the Foot soldier
at twelve rupees, and that of the Sowar at thirty rupees, per
mensem. I have sent a man to Delhi to ascertain the course
of events there ; when he comes back the real state of things
will be known. Traffic has ceased in several districts. The
Jats and Goojurs have commenced plundering, and news
arrives daily of the plundering of villages here and there. A
revolution has occurred in the whole country •”

News from Meerut*^ — Translated from the Soohali Sadikf
published at Madras.

The same newspaper"^ tells us that in the Patau B41e
Camp, at Meerut, the same cartridges arrived, on account of
which the Barrackpore officers had earned a reputation, on

^ The Jami-Jamshid of Meerut.

2 T 2

C44

APPENDIX.

the 18tli or 19tli of the current month ; and the flour-boxes,
which had been publicly stated to contain hogs’ bones mixed
up in them, also came. The order was that the men of the
regiment should purchase the flour. On this account no
one ate food, and refused to take the flour or the cartridges.
Though it is not right to suspect the Sirkars — as they have
nothing to do with religion — ^yet in this business there is no
doubt that, in the wisdom of Government, they have suddenly
withdrawn from kindly feeling tovrards the hearts of their
subjects. It is very lamentable. The sky kisses the earth
from grief.”

THE NANA SAHIB AND AZIM-OODDAH KHAN

[The visit of the Nana Sahib to Lucknow, in April, 1857,
referred to at page 576, is thus descidbed by Mr. Martin
Gubbins in his history of the Mutinies in Oude :]

I must here mention a visit which was made to Lucknow,
in April, by the Nana of Eithoor, whose subsequent treachery
and atrocities have given hina a pre-eminence in infamy. He
came over on pretence of seeing the sights at Lucknow, ac-
companied by his younger brother and a numerous retinue,
bringing letters of introduction from a former Judge of
Cawnpore to Captain Hayes and to myself. He visited me,
and his manner was arrogant and presuming. To make a
show of dignity and importance, he brought six or seven fol-
lowers with him into the room, for whom chairs were de-
manded. One of these men was his notorious agent, Azim-
oollah. His younger brother was more pleasing in appearance
and demeanour. The Nana was introduced by me to Sir
Henry Lawrence, who received him kindly, and ordered the
authorities of the city to show him every attention. I subse-
quently met him parading through Lucknow with a retinue
more than usually large. He had p^Tomised before leaving
Luclmow to make his final call on the Wednesday. On the
Monday, we received a message from him that urgent busi-
ness required his attendance at Cawnpore, and he left Luck-
now accordingly. At the time his conduct excited little atten-

APPENDIX.

645

tion; but it was otherwise wlien affairs had assumed the
aspect which they did at Gawnpore by the 20th of May.
His demeanour at Lucknow and sudden departure to Cawn-
pore appeared exceedingly suspicious, and I brought it to the
notice of Sir Henry Lawrence. The Chief Commissioner
concurred in my suspicions, and by his authority I addressed
Sir Hugh Wheeler, cautioning him against the Nana, and
stating Sir Henry’s belief that he was not to be depended on.:
The warning was unhappily disregarded, and, on the 22nd of
May, a message was received stating that ^two guns and
three hundred men, cavalry and infantry, furnished by the
Maharajah of Bithoor, came in this morning.’ ”

[At pages 579-80 (note) there is an extract from the evi-
dence of a Native emissary, taken by the Hon. H. B. Deve-
reux. Judicial Commissioner of Mysore. This man, Seetarain
Bawa by name, was very distinct and emphatic in his decla-
I’ation that the Nana Sahib had been, for some time before
the outbreak, stirring up this revolt against the English. The
following further passages from this man’s evidence, whether
or not accepted as truth, wiE be read with interest ;]

Then Bajee Eao died at Bithoor. He left a widow and
an adopted son named Nana Sahib, w^ho was always a worth-
less and not very clever fellow, and never would have been
anything but for the tuition of his Q-ooroo, Dassa Bawa (said
to have come from a place called Kalee Dhar, beyond
Kangra, this side of Jummoo). Three years ago, or per-
haps a month less, Nana Sahib gave the Grooroo, Dassa Bawa,
a sunnudi granting a five-lakh jaghir and five nachatras,’^’^
because Das&a Ba’wa had told him that he would become as
powerful as the Peishwah had once been ; and the sunnud
w^as to take effect w-hen he came into power. Dassa Bawa
then made a Hunooman horoscope of eight angles. Nana
then, after seven days of prayer, went to sleep on the horo-
scope, and Hunooman having revealed to him that he would
be victorious, he felt that the truth of the prediction had been
confirmed, and at once presented Das^a Bawa with twenty-

^ Kettle-drums — ^niarks of dignity.

646

APPENDIX.

five thousand rupees’ worth of jewels. Dassa Bawa then
went to Nepaul, &c. Dassa Bawa is the person who has
helped and advised the Nana throughout. The Nana gives
him much money. . •

Q* How and when were the Sepoys induced to join in the
revolt ?

A. Not before the annexation of Oude, but before the
affair of the greased cartridges, which was a mere pretext.
After that. Maun Singh sent four or five Poorbeahs to every
regiment in the service of the Company, and by their means
all communications took place. Even down at the French
Rocks there w^ere men. They were able to enlist in the cause
the Poorbeahs, Hindostanees, and many Mussulmans, but in
no instance did they attempt to gain over the Tamil or Telegoo
Sepoys, or other Hinaoos ot this side of India, for they knew
it would be useless. They eat differently, and do not inter-
marry. The Hindoos of the South have no sympathy with
those of the North, whereas the Mahomedans are united in
feeling throughout India. If a Hindoo is glad, nobody but
his own nearest people will sympathise ; but if a Mussulman
is glad, all Mussulmans rejoice.

Q. Explain what the plan of attack really was.

A. A night was to have been fixed on which, without risk-
ing anything, the whole of the European officers were to have
been killed, and the treasuries plundered. The magazines
were to have been taken possession of when possible, or else
blown up. But it was never intended to injure women or
children. Nearly all were of one mind in the different regi-
ments. It is not the Brahmins and great men that have de-
stroyed helpless children, women with child, and poor women.
[He spoke this with great excitement.] It was the intention
to destroy your men, but it was villagers and savages who de-
stroyed your women and children, such as Maun Singh and
his Poorbeahs. Nana Sahib, though always a worthless fellow,
and nothing without Dassa Bawa, could never have ordered
tne massacre of the women and children. Had they no
mothers or sisters ! Had they no heart for them I I heard

APPENDIX.

647

of wliat happened with sorrow'. We object to your raj. All
men have peace and freedom under it — such freedom as we
never enjoyed before — ^but we sorrow for our caste. I am
speaking of Brahmins, Brahmins love good food and ease.
The Company does not give it (muft) gratis, and we wish for
a return of that w^hich will enable us to obtain it, or rather
place matters in such a position that we can obtain it. We
feel the pressure of your rule in this respect. Nana Saliib
wrote both to Gholab Singh and to Russia, and he got an
answer from Russia. In that answer he was told that no as-
sistance could be given him unless he could take and could
hold Delhi ; but that, if he could succeed in that, then assist-
ance would be given him to drive us from Calcutta. The
letter was sent to J ummoo, and forwarded on from thence by
the hands of the people who bring almonds and fruit. The
country beyond Jummoo is said to be pure Mussulman, but I
do not know anything about it. First, Gholab Singh joined,
and as soon as the union of the Mussulmans and Hindoos was
settled, several letters were sent to Russia.

Q. Can you explain anything about the chupatty cakes
which were passed over India before the insurrection ?

A. The cakes in question were a jadoo or charm, which
originated wdth Dassa Bawa, who told Nana Sahib that he
would make a jadoo, and, as far as these magic cahes should
be carried, so far should the people be on his side. He then
took the reed of the lotus, or rumul, called mukhana, and
made an idol of it. He then reduced the idol to very small
pills, and, having made an immense number of cakes, he put
a pillet in each, and, as far as the cakes were carried, so far
would the people determine to throw off the Company’s raj.
None came as far as this country.

Q. What made Nana Sahib originate this conspiracy?

Ap The Company Sirkar placed all the treasure of his
father under attachment, and he wanted to gain possession of
it. The people about him urged him — the opportunity offered,,
and he took advantage of it.

Q. How do you know all this ?

A, Every person, particularly every Brahmin, is well ac-
quainted with all this, and the fact of these letters having.

648

APPJEM)IX.

been written. Why, every Baboo in Calcutta knew of it.’^
MS. Records.

[Many readers will smile at the statement that the Nana
Sahib was in correspondence with Russia, and received an
answer to his overtures. But, it is by no means improbable
that Azim-oollah Khan entered into communication with some
Russian officers, responsible or irresponsible, and it is cer-
tain that at the time of the Crimean war nothing could have
better served the interests of Russia than a revolt in India.
That Azim-oollah visited the Crimea, we know upon the
best possible authority — ^that of Mr. Russell, who has given,
in his Diary in India,” the following interesting account of
his meeting with the Nana’s agent in the trenches before
Sebastopol :]

Whilst I am writing about it, I may as well relate an inci-
dent in connexion with one “of the Nana’s chief advisers,
which I mentioned to the Grovernor-General, who appeared
much struck with it. After the repulse of the allies in their
assault on Sebastopol, 18 th June, an event closely followed
by the death of Dord Raglan and a cessation of any opera-
tions, except such as were connected with a renewed assault
upon the place, I went down for a few days to Constantinople,
and, whilst stopping at Misseri’s Hotel, saw, on several occa-
sions, a handsome slim young man, of dark-olive complexion,
dressed in an Oriental costume which was new to me, and
covered with rings and finery. He spoke French and Eng-
lish, dined at the table d^lidte^ and, as far as I could make out,
was an Indian Prince, who was on his way back from the pro-
secution of an unsuccessful claim against the East India Com-
pany in London. He had' made the acquaintance of IMr.
Doyne, who was going out to the Crimea as the superin-
tendent of Sir Joseph Paxton’s Army Works Corps, and by
that gentleman he was introduced to me one fine summer’s
evening, as w^ were smoking on the roof of the hotel. I did
not remember his name, but I recollect that he expressed
great anxiety about a passage to the Crimea, ^ as,’ said he,
^ I want to see this famous city, and those great Roostums —
the Russians — ^who have beaten French and English together.

o o

j^PPENDIX.

649

Indeed, lie added tKat lie was going to Calcutta, when the
news of the defeat of June 18 th reached him at Malta, and.
he was so excited by it that he resolved to go to Constanti-
nople, and endeavour thence to get a passage to Balaklava.
In the course of conversation he boasted a good deal of his
success in London society, and used the names of people of„
rank very freely, which, combined with the tone of his re-
marks, induced me to regard him with suspicion, mingled^ I
confess, with dislike. He not only mentioned his bonnes
fortunes^ but expressed a very decided opinion that unless
women were restrained, as they were in the East, ^ like moths
in candlelight, they will fly and get burned.’ I never saw or
heard anything more of him till some weeks afterwards, when
a gentleman rode up to my hut at Cathcart’s Hill, and sent
me in a note from Mr. Doyne, asking me to assist his friend
Azim-oollah Khan in visiting the trenches, and on going out
I recognised the Indian Prince. I had his horse put up, and
walked to the General’s hut to get a pass for him. The sun
was within an hour of setting, and the Russian batteries had
just opened, as was their custom, to welcome om: reliefs and
working-parties, so that shot came bounding up towards the
hill where our friend was standing, and a shell burst in the
air at apparently near proximity to his post. Some delay
took place ere I could get the pass, and when I went with it I
found Azim-oollah had retreated inside the cemetery, and was
looking with marked interest at the fire of the Russian guns.
I told him what he was to do, and regretted my inability to
accompany him, as I was going out to dinner at a mess in the
Light Division. ^ Oh,’ said he, ^ this is a beautiful place to
see from ; I can see everything, and, as it is late, I will ask
you to come some other day, and will watch hei:e till it is
time to go home.’ He said, laughingly, think you will
never take that strong place ;’ and in reply to me, when I
asked him to come to dine with me at my friend’s, where I
was sure he would be welcome, he said, with a kind of sneer,
^ Thank you^ but recollect I am a good Mahomedan !’ ^But,’
said I, ^you dined at Misseri’s?’ ^ Oh, yes: I was joking.
I am not such a fool as to believe in these foolish things. I
am of no religion.’ When I came home that night I found

650

APPENDIX.^

he was asleep in my camp-bed, and my servant told me he
had enjoyed my stores very freely. In the morning he was
up and off, ere I was awake. On my table I found a piece
of paper — ^Azim-oollah Khan presents his compliments to
Eussell, Esquire, and begs to thank him most truly for his
kind attentions, for which I am most obliged.’

^^This fellow, as we all know, was the Nana’s secretary, and
chief adviser in the massacres at Oawnpore. Now, is it not
curious enough that lie should have felt such an interest to
see, with his own eyes, how matters were going on in the
Crimea? It would not be strange in a European to evince
such curiosity ; but in an Asiatic, of the non-military caste, it
certainly is. He saw the British army in a state of some de-
pression, and he formed, as I have since heard, a very un-
favourable opinion of its morale and physique^ in comparison
with that of the French. Let us remember, that soon after
his arrival in India he accompanied Nana Sahib to Lucknow,
where they remained some time, and are thought by those
who recollect their tone and demeanour, to have exhibited
considerable insolence and hauteur towards the Europeans
they met. Afterwards the worthy couple, on the pretence o{
a pilgrimage to the hills — a Hindoo and Mussulman joined in
a holy excursion ! — ^visited the military stations all along the
main trunk-road, and went as far as TJmballah. It has been
suggested that their object in going to Simlah was to tamper
with the Goorkha regiment stationed in the hills ; but that,
finding on their arrival at Umballah a portion of the regiment
were in cantonments, they were unable to effect their pur-
pose with these men, and desisted from their proposed journey
on the plea of the cold weather. That the Nana’s demeanour
towards us should have undergone a change at this time ia
not at all wonderful ; for he had learned the irrevocable de-
termination of the authorities to refuse what he — and, let me
add, ^the majority of the millions of Hindoos who knew the
circumstances — considered to be his just rights as adopted
heir of the ex-Peishwah of the Mahrattas. When the great
villany was planned is not now ascertainable ; but it. must be
remarked, as a piece of evidence in some degree adverse to
the supposition that Nana Sahib had successfully tampered

APPENDIX.

651

■witli the troops at Cawnporc, tliat the latter did not evince
any design of making him their leader, nor did they hold any
communication with him on their revolt, and that they were
all marching off for Delhi when he and his creatures went to
their camp, and by his representations, promises, and actual
disbursements, induced them to go back and assault Wheeler
in his feeble entrenchments.’^

[The statement in the above, that the Nana Sahib visited
Umballah in tlie spring of 1857, is new. Azim-oollah Khan
was certainly there ; for Captain Martineau, who had pre-
viously made acquaintance with him on board a steamer, on
his return to India, met him at that station in the early part
of the year, but was not aware that he accompanied the Nana.]

NATIVE VEESION OE THE BEGINNING OE THE MUTINY.

[The subjoined letter, the original of which fell into the
hands of the Punjabee ofHcials, is, on many accounts, curious
and interesting. It is important, too, as showing how general
was the belief that the whole army was to take time” from
the Meerut Brigade. The statement in this letter may be
advantageously compared with what is said on the same sub-
ject in the letter at page 641 :]

From Nund Singhy Umritsur, to Sirdar Nelial SingJiy JRawul

Pindee.

“June 10, 1857-

After compliments, — You wrote to me to ascertain the
true circumstances connected with the cartridges. I have
made inquiries from different sources. The fact is this i

^^Near Calcutta, five coss distant from it, there is a place
called Achanuk.^ There is a Government cantonment at that
place. At that place a Hindostanee w’as drawing water out
of a well. A ‘ Chumar’ came in and asked the Hindostanee

♦ Barrackpore.

652

APPENDIX.

to give him water to drink. The Hiiidostanee told hiin tiial
he had better go to some other place to drink water.

^ How/ said the Hindostanee, ^ can I give you water to
drink ? You are a Chumar.”

^^Upon this words were exchanged between them. The
Chumar said :

^ You do not give me water to drinkj and affect to be so I'e-
ligious ; and the fat of the cow and pig which I prepare with
my own hands you will bite off with your teeth.’

These and similar words having been exchanged between
them, they came to blows. The other people, who had heard
the talk about the ^ fat/ rescued the ^ Ohumar/ and made in-
quiries from him in a conciliatory manner.

^^Then two men went along with him to that place, f which
was a little removed from the cantonment. There they saw
with their own eyes about fifty or sixty Ohumars working and
putting on the fat of both the animals on the cartridges.
They returned from thence homewards, and described all to
the Soubahdars and other officers.

“It was agreed between them that they should remain silent
at the time, but refuse to receive the cartridges when they
should be given to them.

“ ^ It would then be proper to remonstrate. Let them (the
Government) be doing whatever they like in private. What
business have we to murmur % ’

“For this reason, for some time nothing broke out. About
two or one and a half months afterwards the regiment was
ordered to receive these cartridges, (and it was explained to
them) that, in the first place, the greased cartridges easily
went down into the musket ; and, secondly, they prevented
the musket from being affected by the damp. But as the
men already knew (all about them), they refused to receive
them. The European officers at that place (Barrackpore)
were very hot-tempered; therefore, in consequence of this
refusal a quarr^ soon sprung up. Immediately the European
troops were brought out, £|,nd surrounded the regiment. The
latter were ordered to give up their arms. They replied:

®^^®® amoiip; the t The place where cur tiidges were

Uindoos, who work in leather. said to be made.

APPENDIX.

653

Give us our pay and take away the arms.’ The regiments
were then made to put down their arms, and they having re-
ceived their pay each went away to their home. All th^
Sepoys in this country, at Kurnaul, Meerut, &c., were some
way or other related (to those of the disbanded regiments).
(The men of the latter) wrote to the former, telling them what
had occurred, and stated ^that we have on this account
quitted the service, and have seen all with our own eyes.
We have written this to you for your information. If you
should receive these cartridges, intermarriage, and eating and
drinking in common, shall cease between yourselves and us.’

When, at Dinapore, the cartridges were distributed by the
English, they were refused ; the men stated that ^ Meerut is
the principal cantonment. Distribute the cartridges there
first of all, and we will take them afterwards.’

The distribution of the cartridges having been ordered at
Meerut, and the men having been already acquainted with
the circumstances connected with them, refused to receive
them. But a company which was sent for to receive the
cartridges, not having obeyed the order, were placed in con-
finement by the European officers. Intelligence of this
having reached the rest of the troops, all attacked the jail,
and set at liberty the men of the company, and also the other
prisoners. The disturbance then grew high.

At the very first, when the regiment at Achanuk (Barrack-
pore) was disbanded, a requisition was made to England for
twenty more European regiments. But these did not sail in
steamers, but are coming in other ships which sail with the
force of the wind.

The truth appears to be, that the report of the fat being
used is not altogether untrue ; much is commonly made of a
little thing, but it cannot be that anything can be produced
from nothing. Is ever a tree produced without the seed?
It cannot be. And now that orders have been read to all the
regiments to the effect that these cartridges will not be served
out, and shall either be cut up or flooded, consider that the
very circumstance of such an order having been read, anni-
hilates the belief that there was nothing wrong in these
cartridges.

654

APPENDIX.

You are wise yourself ; the real foundation of this dis-
turbance is what I have described. But all things are known
to God only, who is omniscient.” — MS* Records*

THE MAT PUOCIiAMATION.

^ [The following is the proclamation referred to at page 608 :]

‘'Port William, Home Department, May 16, 1857.

Proclamation*

^^The Governor-General of India in Council has warned the
Army of Bengal, that the tales by which the men of certain
Bogiments have been led to suspect that offence to their Reli-
gion or injury to their Caste is meditated by the Government
of India, are malicious falsehoods.

The Governor-General in Council has learnt that this sus-
picion continues to be propagated by designing and evil-
minded men, not only in the Army, but amongst other
classes of the people*

• He knows that endeavours are made to persuade Hindoos
and Mussulmans, Soldiers and Civil Subjects, that their reli-
gion is threatened secretly, as well as openly, by the acts of
the Government, and that the Government is seeking in
various ways to entrap them into a loss of Caste for purposes
of its own. -

Some have been already deceived and led astray by these
tales. '

Once more, then, the Governor-General in Council warns
all classes against the deceptions that are practised on them.

.^^The Government of India has invariably treated the reli-
gious feelings of all its subjects wdth careful respect. The
Governor-General in Council has declared that it will never
cease to do so. He now repeats that declaration, and he em-
phatically proclaims that the Government of India entertains
no design to interfere with their Religion or Caste, and that
nothing has been, or will be done by the Government to affect

APPENDIX.

€65

tl)p free exercise of the observances of Religion or Caste by
every class of the people.

“The Government of India has never deceived its subjects,
therefore the Governor-General in Council now calls upon
them to refuse their belief to seditious lies.

“ This notice is addressed to those who hitherto, by habitual
loyalty and orderly conduct, have shown their attachment to
the Government, and a well-founded faith in its protection and
justice.

“The Governor-General in Council enjoins all such persons
to pause before they listen to false guides and traitors who
would lead them into danger and disgrace.

“ By Order of the Governor-General of India in Council,

“ Cecil Beadon,

“ Secretary to the Government of Ind'a

ADDENDUM.

AMMUNITION EOR TWO-aROOYEB KIFLES.

After the statement at pages 516-18, i^especting the com-
position of the greasing materials used with the old two-
grooved rifles, was in type, I succeeded in tracing the ori-
ginal orders on the subject, drawn up by the Military Board
iti 184.7. The following is the material part of the Board’s
Memorandum, approved by the Commander-in-Oliief and the
Governor-General :

“ 1st. The ammunition of two-grooved rifles is to be pre-
pared as blank cartridge of three drachms of musketry pow-
der, in blue paper, made up in bundles of ten.

“ 2nd. The balls to be put up, five in a string, in small
cloth bags, with a greased patch of fine cloth — a portion car-
ried in a ball-bag attached to the girdle on the right side, and
the remainder in pouch.

“ 3rd. Patches to be made of calico or long cloth, and
issued ready greased from magazines ; a portion of greasing
composition will also be issued with the patches for the pur-

APPENDIX.

pose of renewal when required, and instructions for its pre-
paration forwarded to magazine officers by the Military
, Board.”

[The following were the instructions issued in accordance
with this Memorandum :]

The mode of preparing the grease and applying it to the
cloth to be as follows: — ^To three pints of country linseed
oil, add one-fourth of a pound of beeswax, which mix by
melting the wax in a ladle, pouring the oil in and allowing it
to remain on the fire until the composition is thoroughly
melted. The cloth is then to be dipped in it until every part
is saturated, and held by one comer until the mixture ceases
\o run, after which it is to be laid out as smooth as possible
on a clean spot to cool. The above quantity of composition
will answer for three yards of long cloth, from which 1200
patches can be made.”

[These instructions were approved by the Governor-Greneral
(Lord Hardinge), in a letter from the Military Secretary to
the Adjutant-General, dated April 6, 1847. I can trace no
subsequent order cancelling the above ; and as I am assured
by the officer who held the post of Inspector-General of Ord-
nance during the administration of Lord Dalhousie and Lord
Canning that this composition continued in use up to 1857. I
cannot dotibt that the impression at head-quarters that the

patches” were greased with mutton fat was altogether a
mistake.]

or voij. t

Mil a graft^fmilj, “ it grto
nisi lioto loi^jffifrer ifeon

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